History
Uncovering a proud heritage of Ekka stories
CHRIS CURRIE takes a trip to the Royal Queensland Show – one of the biggest events on the state calendar, with a fascinating history.
The Royal Queensland Show – affectionately known as the ‘Ekka’ – is a true icon and our largest annual event, bringing together people from all over the state for nearly 150 years.
It was first held in 1876, as ‘The Intercolonial Exhibition of 1876’: an initiative of the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland, formed a year earlier.
Originally envisioned as a “means of introducing new and better stock and better machinery into the colony”, the 1876 exhibition catalogue – held in the State Library of Queeensland’s collections – shows it became so much more, with in excess of 1700 exhibits on display across more than 650 classes, including manufacturing, art and education.
There were vocal concerns about the exhibition’s ability to draw big numbers, but these were dispelled even before it opened, with a persistent “crowd of idlers” encroaching on workers preparing the Bowen Park site.
On opening day on August 22, 1876, an estimated 16,000 visitors flooded through the gates, with mounted troopers enlisted to drive back the eager crowds. By the time the exhibition ended, about 34,000 people had visited.
The Ekka has been held every year since 1876, with the only exceptions being health epidemics – influenza in 1919 and COVID in 2020 and 2021 – and in 1942, when the showgrounds were used as a storage depot during World War II. World War I, however, did not stop the show, with the 1915 Exhibition including a patriotic display of 5000 children “bright of face, sturdy of limb, well clad and healthy” representing, through “special and national costume” all The Great War Allies.
Many of the activities we most associate with the Ekka have remained relatively unchanged over the decades.
Historical images from State Library collections feature sideshow alley games, showbags, ice cream, wood chopping, rides and, of course, plenty of bulls.
The other Ekka constant has been an incredible array of produce and product displays. Images and photographs include a three-metre high ‘pineapple’ made up of pineapples, a six-metre high “artistic and imposing arrangement” of cured meats and – perhaps most memorably – a life-sized figure of Queen Elizabeth made entirely of butter, “complete with sculpted tiara, handbag and bouquet of flowers”. Spend long enough in the State Library collections and you will also find commemorative coin purses and medals, livestock prize ribbons and even a souvenir handkerchief from 1891.
Do you have an Ekka story to tell, or want to uncover a new one? The inaugural Royal Queensland Show (Ekka) Fellowship will support research into the lesser-known history of the Ekka using the John Oxley Library collection and the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland archives.
The fellowship recipient will receive a stipend of $20,000, a personal workspace within the Neil Roberts Research Lounge for 12 months and premium access to State Library’s extensive collections and library staff expertise. Applications close at midnight on August 11.
Find out more at slq.qld.gov.au/qma
