Lachy Johnson can’t believe it’s been a year since he won the 2023 State Rural Ambassador Award.The award, proudly sponsored by the Department of Primary Industries and Regions(PIRSA) and run by South Australian Country Shows, is open to people aged between 20-30 committed to their local show and community and highlights the importance of youth in the agricultural show movement.
The 27-year-old diesel mechanic and farmer in Bordertown spends the little ‘free time’ he has being vice president of the Mundulla Show Society.
A role he’s passionate about.
“It all comes down to getting the community involved in something and showcasing what your local area has to offer,” Lachy says.
“If we want to keep these local events around, you've got to get younger people involved.”
Crowned at last year’s Royal Adelaide Show, the Bordertown diesel mechanic and farmer has spent the past year clocking up 5,000km attending, meeting with, and learning from country shows at Uraidla, Port Elliot, Balaklava, Naracoorte, Penola, and Parndana on Kangaroo Island.
As Ambassador, the award program – available to people aged between 20-30 and committed to their local show – enabled Lachy to attend the Sydney Royal Easter Show in April.
“We spent time talking about all our local shows and problems that we'd all faced, and how we do different things.”
“It's been really awesome networking with those other young minds with the same goal in mind.”
Lachy says attending all the different shows didn’t leave one ‘Holy grail takeaway’ but a series of little ideas.
“It’s not always something they do well. Sometimes it's the things that they don't do well that you pick up on.”
In Parndana, Lachy got hands-on with helping to run their Young Farmers Challenge, set up the hall and sell tickets for the dodgem cars (a win for Kangaroo Island which doesn’t often get rides).
Closer to home, Lachy is intentional about sharing Mundulla’s ideas and resources with neighbouring shows, like their own Young Farmers Challenge trailer – loaded with farmer-related activities to tackle.
“So instead of all the shows having to try and source that, we put this trailer together. We’ve put a $50 higher fee on it. It doesn't cover the running cost of the trailer, but it's more just a token gesture towards the upkeep of the trailer.”
Lachy says his show committee – led by a 29-year-old president - does exceptionally well at entertaining new people and ideas.
“You look at the demographic of people that are running country shows and local events, and it's usually a lot of the older generations.”
“[A few years ago] we had a couple of young girls interested in organising [bail racing].”
“We basically gave them free reign of that and helped with setting up a bar and all the grandstands… It was a huge success.”
He says while people often want young people to get involved, they need to be willing to listen to their ideas.
“You’ve got to keep those fresh ideas, fresh minds, fresh set of hands… even just doing leg work, like putting tables and things like that.”
“That’s what we tell people… we can find you something to do in an area that you're passionate about.”
Lachy’s excited to meet the new cohort of ambassadors at September’s Royal Adelaide Show, where the 2024 State Rural Ambassador will be announced.
After the show, Lachy’s off to Melbourne Royal Show in October to compete in the Agricultural Shows Australia national competition.
Good luck Lachy!
