Celebrating 50 years of history and farming innovation at this year’s Newdegate Machinery Field Days

The machinery is bigger and the woollen fashion more modern, but the aim of the Newdegate Machinery Field Days has remained the same for 50 years — to bring farmers the best in the biz.

The Field Days last week and the town’s centenary celebration on September 24 come at a time when farmers are fuelled with the optimism of a good farming year.

Since the first field days in the 1970s, the community has banded together to bring the Newdegate Machinery Field Days to life.

Originally a one-day event, the first Newdegate Machinery Field Days in 1973 attracted just 12 exhibitors — a far cry from the 300-plus that now attend the event.

Its genesis lay in discussion between the Newdegate Jaycees (the local Junior Chamber of Commerce Group) which was looking for ways to make money and had started to watch other small agricultural shows fold as unsustainable.

Wally Newman has called Newdegate home for most of his life, living on the farm for 70 years.

He was just 24 when the first Newdegate Machinery Field Day was held. His son Craig Newman is now the president.

Mr Newman and other local farmers came up with the idea for the event after realising smaller shows were unsustainable, with the Lake King show folding in the late 1960s.

His friend Rusty Lee, who was also part of the Jaycees, believes the event is still crucial for farmers to see machinery “in one place”.

In 1973, the first field day was held.

It seemed a golden opportunity for strategically located Newdegate to showcase the machinery used in opening up new farming land developments and to draw crowds from Esperance, Albany, Southern Cross, Bunbury and Narrogin.

There were only three machinery dealerships keen to exhibit — As Hall & Co in Newdegate, Lake Grace Engineering and Machinery, and John Holland.

Most of the machinery on show was owned by local farmers, bought from local dealers, and polished up especially for the day.

The star attraction was Malcolm Kelly’s 4430 John Deere 130 horsepower tractor with a sound guard cab.

Former Lake Grace Engineering and Machinery owner John DeVree has fond memories of exhibiting at the first event and for 25 afterwards, having moved to Lake Grace to build State housing after two years working as a builder in Melbourne.

He brought a harvester, a cultivator and a seeder to the first field day, and remembers doing demonstrations at the “well-organised and friendly” event.

Ten years later, with rising exhibitor and visitor numbers, then-committee president Frank Whittington flagged the move to a two-day event in the September 15, 1983 edition of Countryman.

At the time, it was suggested a move to two days had been met with “enthusiastic agreement” from exhibitors, who wanted more opportunity to showcase their wares.

The story cited the cost and time involved in setting up displays for one day as a reason to expand.

As one representative told Countryman that year, “you can’t afford not to be present”.

The first two-day event in 1984 was a hit, and the decision was made to keep it that way.

The 1987 soiree featured a stronger focus on sheep and sheep handling, with Dyson Jones sponsoring the event’s first State ewe hogget competition in 1988.

Dyson Jones has continued to sponsor it and the fleece competition, and has supported the fashion parades for many years.

These days, the Newdegate Machinery Field Days attract between 9000 and 11,000 people each year, and what started with tents and pegs has been moved to a permanent site with nine buildings, 16ha, and room to grow.

CWA of WA Lake Varley branch member Margaret Sullivan, who has lived at Holt Rock since 1966, has been at every Newdegate Machinery Field Days since the event’s inception.

She has fond memories of her first field day, selling hot dogs in a “small, dusty, and hot little caravan” while other volunteers would bring cakes, crochet and knitting.

The CWA is now a staple in the Family Interest Display Pavilion – selling its famous cookbooks and mugs.

Mrs Sullivan and husband Jim have come to the Field Days for 50 years, and she finds it impossible to pinpoint her favourite part.

“You go home with tired legs but feeling happy . . . because it is an opportunity to catch up,” she said.

This year’s Field Days were particularly fun for the CWA ladies, with their stall surrounded by wineries from across the State.

The Newdegate Machinery Field Days is a shining example of a modern agricultural field day and is vital to the social and economic life of rural Australia.

Not only does the event allow farming communities to share in experiences and propagate the latest in agricultural technology, it has also injected millions of dollars into local economies and put the shire of Lake Grace and the town of Newdegate on the map.

A team of dedicated volunteers have been toiling for about two years to organise the centenary celebration later this month, which will include the unveiling of a centenary wall, heritage walk trail, and a 372-page book documenting the town’s history.