Sophie Conlon
MEMBERS of the Mount Gambier Poultry and Pigeon Club are celebrating their 100th year with a centenary show this weekend.
President Trevor Kuhl is a third generation member of the club and said he was pleased to see the group reach the 100 year milestone.
“I’m excited that we’ve made it this far because we have been looking forward to it for the last four or five years,” he said.
Mr Kuhl said there would be about 600 birds in the poultry shed at the Mount Gambier Showgrounds for the competition on Sunday.
“For our normal championship show it’s usually around 300, so we’ve doubled our number and this time we’ve got about 50 pigeons coming,” he said.
“There will be about 500 breeds of chook… there will be a little bit of everything to keep people interested.”
Club secretary Melissa McIntosh-Kennedy said the milestone competition would have bigger prizes for winners than normal with around $3500 worth of cash and products up for grabs.
Mr Kuhl said each competitor would be given a commemorative 100 year medallion and life members of the club would be reissued with new badges.
“We’ll make the event for the members that are here and all those along the way,” he said.
“Without the ones that started it and supported it all the way through we wouldn’t have made it here.”
Mr Kuhl said everyone would be welcomed into the poultry and pigeon club family when they came down to the show on Sunday.
“It will be a noisy atmosphere with friendly people, come and say hello,” he said.
“Different varieties of birds will be here, everything from tall moderns at 3’6 to little bantams that are only six inches high.”
With exhibitors coming from around Australia, Mr Kuhl said this would be a great opportunity for people within the community to come together.
“It’s a meeting place for everyone to get together and discuss,” he said.
The local club has about 15 members, with the youngest around 10 and the eldest in their 80s, and Ms McIntosh-Kennedy said the were always on the hunt for new people to sign up.
“The juniors are the ones we try and encourage, because without the juniors coming up into the seniors the club dies,” she said.
A noteworthy milestone in the club’s 100 year history was when it moved to the current location at the Mount Gambier Showgrounds in 1956, which Mr Kuhl said was built by dedicated volunteers.
“In the early 70’s we all laid the floor down in one day, the guys were 60 or 70 years old mixing concrete outside and filling the wheelbarrows and Curl Day was on his hands and knees spreading it out as we were dumping it off,” he said.
“It’s all those things you remember, the fun of working together.”
Ms McIntosh-Kennedy said for her the memorable moments were the friendly competitions.
They also both agreed there was nothing like connecting with, and learning from, the older members in the club.
“It’s all the bonds and the friendships you make… the social side of it’s probably the greatest thing,” Mr Kuhl said.
As they celebrate this milestone and look to the future Mr Kuhl said he hoped the club would survive another hundred years.
“We are only the custodians of it, we just need to hand it on,” he said.
“Same with the breeds of chooks, we need to maintain the standards and hand them onto future generations.”
The pair encouraged anyone who might be interested in joining the club to come down and say hello.
The free show will kick off from 9.30am on Sunday, August 6, in the Poultry Shed at the Mount Gambier Showgrounds.
