General News
27 January, 2022
Field days cancelled
THE committee behind one of the Wimmera’s most popular events has made the tough decision to cancel due to ongoing complications from the pandemic.
THE committee behind one of the Wimmera’s most popular events has made the tough decision to cancel for the second year in a row due to ongoing complications from the pandemic.
The Wimmera Machinery Field Days committee announced on January 26 to cancel the 59th Annual Wimmera Machinery Field Days due to be held on March 1 and 2.
It comes following weeks of coordination between community groups across the Wimmera and exhibitors as well as with local healthcare providers.
Field days president Sam Eagle said the committee made the extremely difficult decision to cancel this year’s event because of the risk to the community given the widespread impact of coronavirus.
“There have been so many aspects to consider, but at the end of the day we have a duty of care to our local community,” he said.
“We have exhibitors travelling to the region from all over Australia; it’s not just local businesses attending.
“We were also concerned about the number of volunteers needed to run the event and the potential impact of isolation rules in the lead-up to and during the event.”
O’Connors group sales development manager Birchip’s Tom Sheridan said local exhibitors backed the committee’s decision to cancel this year’s event.
“We are fully supportive of the committee's decision because we know they have the best interests of the community at heart,” he said.
“They really weighed up the pros and the cons of the situation and we’re fully supportive of the committee.
“Both the committee and O’Connors would have been eager to go but that’s the decision that they made which we absolutely support.
“We’ve also got employees that are members of these key communities and safety must be the first priority
“We were eager as everyone to get back to life pre-COVID but unfortunately the risks were too high and we will stand by the committee on that.
“There will be some flow on effects to us but the decision wasn’t made lightly and we’ll manage the flow on effects on our end and it’ll be fine.”
Mr Eagle said the committee left its decision as late as possible in the hope that the impact from the current strain of coronavirus had diminished significantly.
However, he said unfortunately there was no guarantee this would be the case in time for the 2022 field days.
“We understand it is extremely disappointing for our exhibitors, stakeholders, sponsors, supporters and community volunteers,” he said.
“We are devastated for our local businesses that have always supported the field days.”