The Sydney Royal Easter Show

This was the intent behind the formation of Sydney’s Royal Easter Show, which had it's beginning as an Agricultural Society on 5th July 1822. It aimed to increase livestock within the colony and share farming practices. The first show was held the following year in 1823 in Parramatta. The organisation was later called Royal Agricultural Society of NSW and became an important opportunity for growers and manufacturers to display their goods and compete. The society’s membership read like a who’s who of the colony at the time – leading land-owners, stock-owners and merchants like Samuel Marsden, William Cox, Hannibal McArthur, and John Blaxland. It was hoped that forming a centralised body would have the effect of raising standards in agriculture throughout the fledgling colony.

… a public spirit of agricultural improvement shall be implanted in the breast of all

The Society sought to encourage and promote rural industry through competition, education and events. At its centre was the regular judging of animals and agricultural produce at an annual Show, the first of which was staged in Parramatta the following year. Despite its initial success the Society was forced to disband in 1836 due to poor economic conditions and lack of support, however it re-formed in 1857 with renewed vigour. From 1868, the Journal of the Agricultural Society of NSW was published, the first of its kind in Australia, containing practical information and the latest agricultural developments for those on the land.

The annual Shows moved from Parramatta to Sydney’s Prince Alfred Park after 1868, and then to a new site at Moore Park in 1882. Although little more than scrubland at the time, it was here that the Society built a showground which would be home to the Show for the next 116 years. Only the 1919 Bubonic Plague and the Second World War prevented the Show going ahead in that time. The Society had been renamed the 'Royal' Agricultural Society of NSW in 1891, by special permission of Queen Victoria, and the first 'Royal' Easter Show was held the same year.

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