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JUNE 2016 | David Claridge

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DURING 5th - 7th May, around 60,000 patrons travelled to Carrick to visit Tasmania’s premier agricultural event.

Agfest 2016 was better than ever, with more stalls, an extra craft shed and more to offer to patrons.

Agfest’s vice chair, Dayna Broun, was very pleased with the attendance figures.

“We had an excellent turn out,” she said. “There was also an amazing group of rural youth volunteers, around 126 of them, working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep it all going.

“A new feature this year were the bullocks, eight big bullocks, which did demonstrations using carts, bringing people back to the heritage days.”

This year the weather held on, apart from some rain on Thursday and a slight breeze.

Local wood-chopping champions battled it out at the Timbersports Australia site. Deloraine’s own Matt Gurr fought to regain his recordbreaking time in Friday’s Springboard race, won by Brad De Losa.

After a fantastic attempt, Mr Gurr fell short of De Losa’s time by just 0.01 second.

Patrons who went for the food were not disappointed, as many gourmet food tents offered their wares.

Big favourites were the tempura mushrooms, gourmet steak sandwiches and the variety of desserts from the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm.

The Australian Army displayed a jaw dropping attraction, an ASLAV armoured reconnaissance vehicle, normally only found on the mainland. This is just the second time one has been brought to Tasmania.

One of the most popular attractions was the revamped equine arena, with horses for the adults and miniature ponies for the children. Private Bailey, who was responsible for the war horse Corporal Sampson, paraded around in fatigues.

[udesign_icon_font name="fa fa-camera" color="#000000"] Mike Moores