Celebrating 82 years
of the Tully Show
Tully Show to Showcase Our Community 26th - 27th July
SEAN DENT UP to 6000 people are expected to descend upon the Tully Showgrounds Next Friday, July 26, for the much-anticipated Tully Show. Being totally upfront, this is my first ever show, so I asked around town what should I expect because, it’s just a show, right? No big deal. Apparently, it’s not “just a show” – it is THE SHOW, known as one of the best shows in the North, according to Show Secretary, Caroline Chadwick. People’s eyes light up when they talk to me about it and they remember different things. They tell me the Grey Nomads are one of the best groups to use as a gauge for how amazing the show is because they have never seen it before, and they always come away agog at what they just witnessed. Another point of view is to gauge how special the event is by how many people continue to go to the show year after year. It never gets old for them. In fact, it seems to rekindle their fond memories of growing up with the show, getting dressed up to go after a visit to Cairns for some holiday shopping.
Then there was the post-event tradition of going to look at the pictures the photographer took, and deciding how many copies to buy. Everyone seems to have a different favourite event. Of course, the kids love the rides and Lara the Clown, the petting enclosures, and the snake man. If you’re a Grey Noman reading this, I recommend going to see the snake man because what you will learn from him will fascinate you and may save your life one day. Quite a few families will find themselves re-uniting for a couple of days because the children will be returning from uni just to go to the show. It’s a family affair. Chadwick, concurred, saying, “It’s a family-orientated couple of days that showcase what our community does.” Showcasing what our community does is a bit of an understatement. Yes, there are agricultural aspects to it, and competitions for things like the biggest banana bunch, cane cutting, wood chopping, cattle and car exhibitions, and equestrian competitions.
But you’ll be watching the best of the best the community has to offer. Any aspect of the agri-life you can think of, you’ll get to see the highest level of it on display at the show. There are certain things that happen every year, which is a comfort tradition really. Things like the food the Lions Club prepares and the donuts the scouts sell that everyone loves. Some men use the show as an excuse to stand at the bar and scoff down burgers, hot dogs, meat pies, and the like. When night falls, the fireworks will start and that’s another favourite. If this is your first time, that will cap a day of amazing events and maybe make you envy the people of this region who get to do it every year. If you’re a dyed-in-wool local, you’ll be loving every moment and maybe reminiscing with your kids or grandkids about what it was like in the good old days when you spent way too much time trying to shoot enough ducks to win a top prize.
Tully Girl guides stall 2018.
Packall Fashion 2018.
Lions stall 2018.
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TCT Chairperson: Tourism a Gateway For Regional Prosperity SEAN DENT IF you are one of the residents of the region concerned with the downturn of our vital tourism industry in the years since the Global Financial Crisis in 2009 and Cyclone Yasi in 2011, the good news is not everyone is just sitting down hoping for some magical turnaround. For months now, a group led by Jasmine Porteous, the new Chairperson of the Tropical Coast Tourism Board (TCT), the outgoing Chairperson, Mark Evans, and Mayor of the Cassowary Coast Regional Council, John Kremastos, has been working on a plan: The Cassowary Coast Region Tourism Strategy, a 62-page manifesto designed to rebuild our tourism industry and set it on a positive and lasting upward trajectory. The mantra that supports the platform is, “Love The Place We Live” and as business plans go, it is thorough, it is detailed and it’s impeccably laid out. Its foundation is based on the idea that we live in a region that is unique in the world. No other region has the combination of a world class reef alongside a heritage-listed rainforest that is the world’s oldest, and which is home to hundreds of species of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. And that’s just the start, as anyone who has lived here any length of time knows. It also has the potential to become the adventure and discovery capital of the world, with world-class natural experiences, coastal villages, endless tropical beaches, picturesque bays and waterfalls, exotic food experiences, and indigenous culture. Visitors can literally meet people who have been living on the land for 40,000 years. Add to that the various once-in-a-lifetime activities that visitors can embrace such as skydiving, rafting, mountain biking, and many more. All of this in a small region that is accessible yearround. We all know this. We live here for a reason even if we take it for granted. It’s undeniably a slice of paradise that wows visitors. It’s also one of the most welcoming communities in the world and offers something that people in other countries still value, the authentic Aussie experience. What’s most impressive about this manifesto is that it doesn’t ignore or deny the challenges. For example, as a rural community, a lot of us are old-fashioned and have not fully embraced the digital economy. At CCIN, we’ve spoken with many local business owners, and they don’t see the need for internet commerce because their customers are all local. But as this document points out, many people abroad go online to research the area they will be visiting. As much as it may seem counterintuitive, a study showed that visitors spend more money shopping than attending events, and they are intrigued by knowing what amazing shops are in the area they will visit. In a nutshell, they are checking out the local shops before they ever set foot in our region. In this article, we are presenting just a small slice of what is covered in the report. We recommend you download it, grab a cup of coffee, and give it a good read. There are at least two things you should take from it: 1) a successful tourism industry benefits us all, no matter what business you are in and 2) a successful tourism industry depends on us all as well. This is a full-on manifesto with all the steps they are planning to restore our once proud region to its rightful place among the world’s most desired tourism destinations, and it’s bold as hell. Download it here: https://www.tropicalcoasttourism.com.au/client-assets/pdfs/TCTstrategy-19-06-19-web.pdf
Cassowary Coast Independent News, Thursday, July 18, 2019 Page 11