Brisbane Ekka

Twenty students represented Tenterfield High School at the Royal Queensland Show (EKKA) at the beginning of August, showing a team of 11 steers and heifers. 

Cattle were loaded Sunday morning and arrived for weigh in at the Showgrounds in 

Brisbane. All students paraded the cattle on Monday competing against over 300 students around Queensland and NSW. 

There were very early starts on Tuesday and Wednesday preparing cattle for the Junior Led Steer and Heifer Judging, and the Open Led Steer Judging. The students were lucky enough to have a master class from a professional cattle fitter who helped the students prepare the open cattle for competition. A big thankyou to Chloe Gray (a relative of the Rolph family). Our interschool junior judging team consisting of Ava Mitchell, Jarrod Brown and Philippa Sloman competed on Tuesday afternoon judging some of the largest numbers of cattle the EKKA has seen for several years. 

On the hoof THS were called up into several lineups with a steer produced by Brett Lawrence placing 3rd in the Junior Steer competition and qualifying for auction on Wednesday afternoon. The best results were yet to come. Hook results included a heifer produced by the Thomas family placing 1st in its class, and then taking out Champion Junior Heifer, and a heifer of Brett Lawrence's placing 4th on the hook.  A steer again produced by Brett Lawrence also took out Champion Junior Steer on the hook. To gain these accolades at this level of competition is a great achievement for our school and could not be done without the producers, staff, students and parents who support this event. 

A special thankyou to the students who represented their school with pride and worked long days; the parents who supported the students whilst in Brisbane, the Bulmer family for their continued support with transportation. Australia Property and Livestock Tenterfield once again decked our students out with vests and hats. And thank you to Mr Phillip Jones, Mr Hughie McCowen and Ms Olivia Parker for their preparation and organisation of these great opportunities for THS students.