August 1st, 2024Don is good, but out, and the show goes on

Don Harvey sharply remembers the jargon of a local council officer when he was getting involved with the Daylesford Show.

“What,” he was asked, “is your Mission Statement?” Don, pictured centre, did not miss a beat: “More dollars than last year.”

Last year, for the first time in six years, the show made a profit. Now, as the 150th show approaches in November, he looks back on his 12 years on the show committee and, as president at 79, he reckons it’s time for someone new.

His start was not great. “I thought I’d do something to help them and volunteered to paint the chook pavilion but had a heart attack which set me back three and a half years.”

Don’s background is that he went to Bendigo Junior Tech, first as a student and then to teach history until having a blow-up over the method used and moved to English.

Later he became a newsagent in Boort. His cosy Bullarto home, which he doubled in size from a holiday place built in 1978, is chokkers with books and family photos.

There he is keen to discuss the show, not himself, but when pressed tells of his time as a players’ advocate at country footy tribunals.

“Now, listen to me, I would say. I’ll do the talking. If they ask you something, don’t say there was a fight. But every time, the bloke would say, ‘He snotted me as I ran onto the ground’.”

Don moved into the gentler world of iris growing, exhibiting at the Melbourne Iris Show, so he’s naturally passionate about the Hall of Flowers in Daylesford, held in the Table Tennis Centre, with vegetables, farm and home produce joining the blooms.

Add to this 250 horses, about 100 sheep and birds and more than 400 dogs on show, plus homecrafts, music, wine, needlework, photography, food, showbags and sideshows and the picture for November 23 grows.

About 3500 people attend. There is only one event after Daylesford at which people can qualify for the Royal Melbourne Show.

Winners of an event can go to the next level at the Midlands Group, which is the doorway to Melbourne.It’s by no means a one-man show.

Don’s wife Mary compiles the detailed 20- page program, down to the cookery section, including Blokes’ Chocolate Cake and Sponge, “not iced, no filling”.

This is all part of a tradition stretching back to the first show in Hobart in 1822 and the first ploughing trials at Glenlyon in 1864.

Farmer-to-farmer innovation and education rolled out, as well as tremendous technological advances on display, from the first automated shearing machines to the start of GPS-controlled tractors.

In all of this, however, there is a heartbeat to the show, such as the one revealed by Don, who tells of being aged six or seven when he went with his father from near the rear of Cliffy’s, his sister on his father’s shoulders, up to Victoria Park.

“I walked,” he says, “and there were others walking, too, in 1952”. Don is also keen to share his view on people’s unhappiness.

“I’ve met people who make others miserable, and my approach is not to be bloody miserable in return. It is possible to talk to people and make them feel a bit better. I’ve had a few years’ practise at that.”

Besides the Show, Don is involved with the local historical society and the Friends of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, where he is known for his wry humour.

Which is just as well, says Patrice O’Shea, secretary of the Friends, because Don and Mary have faced health problems.

“Living and gardening in Bullarto is not for the faint-hearted. Putting aside the characteristically bleak weather, the terrible damage wrought by storms made a pretty grim prospect of trying to restore your place in what was beautiful bush,” Patrice says.

She says that as a keen seed collector Don is an inveterate optimist by nature.

“He shares his joy in plants, many of them rare, in the community and even in politics.” And we all benefit from this.”

Journalist: Kevin Childs | Image: Kyle Barnes