Bars Do Just Fine Without The Bull

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday April 5, 1999

By ANTHONY DENNIS

It was a Royal Easter Show tradition when the event was held at Moore Park to parade the champion bull inside the Cattleman's Bar.

The bar was on the ground floor, but the spanking new version at Homebush Bay has a flight of stairs and, though they have tried, a meaty champion bull simply would not squeeze into the lift.

One of the main worries when the Show was moved was whether the ambience of the old show's bars could be recreated at its new venue. However, what authorities most hoped to see was an improvement in behaviour at the bars, which at times had become a bit too boisterous.

"We trashed the bars at Moore Park," said Mr Ray Buckland, the Royal Agri- cultural Society's bars licensee.

"We used to turn on the fire hoses to clean them at the end of the day. It was fairly raunchy at times, to say the least. It was a 24-hour-a-day B and S Ball. Now, here at Homebush, it's all about trying to maintain a fine balance between culture and tradition and combining that with what is now a far upgraded venue and the responsible service of alcohol."

Outside each of the Show bars, signs warn against anti-social behaviour.

While the Show's dozen or so bars, from the Woodchop to the Rodeo, may now be a lot more salubrious and less raucous, one thing is unchanged: they remain a microcosm of rural Australia in the heart of Sydney.

"People get their favourite bar at the Show and they'll go there every night," said Ms Rebel Thomson of Walcha, drinking with friends at the main arena's Members' Bar.

"I think people come to Sydney for the Show to get away from it all. I mean, things are pretty bad. This is a way of getting away from it all, to see a few old friends and catch up with a lot of people."

Since the Show moved to Homebush Bay, the rodeo community, which used to call its own the old Concourse Bar at Moore Park, has secured its own oasis attached to a new rodeo arena. It was there that Mr Pat Grills, of Guyra, and Mr Bert Williamson, whose son is a rodeo rider, and Mr Max Farlow, a rodeo steward, both of Glen Innes, were quietly drinking together the other night.

Mr Farlow said: "We've been talking about the camp-draft competition, which was on earlier, the judges' decisions, good and bad, and about these blokes getting on the right train home at night. [Mr Grills and Mr Williamson have been having trouble navigating the big smoke.] At the end of the day we just like to sit down and have a drink at the closest bar, and this one is the most convenient." At the Clydesdale Bar, over at the horse pavilions, one of the Show's most popular and lively venues, Mr Sam Kirby, 24, from Molong, near Orange, and Mr Julian Blaxland, 20, from Gatton, near Toowoomba in Queensland, bare-back riders for their respective States, had migrated from the Rodeo Bar.

One of the big differences between the two bars is the headgear the patrons wear.

"The hats we wear are different from the cattlemen's hats," Mr Blaxland said.

"Our ones are Yankee, made of straw. We don't really wear Akubras at the rodeo. Only about 1 or 2 per cent wear them. What's the problem with Akubras? They look like shit."

For much of yesterday, one of the busiest days of the Show, the bars were the best places to be to shelter from the rain. Yesterday's attendance, until 5 pm, was just 57,003, but Saturday's full attendance figure was brighter for organisers, 115,104, compared with 120,982 last year.

WHERE THE DRINKS ARE

Cattleman's Bar: One of the Show's most popular, where expense has not been spared. $400m was spent replacing the stolen eyes of a stuffed and mounted bull's head.

Rodeo Bar: Attached to a new rodeo arena, created especially for cowboys and girls who used to frequent the Concourse.

Clydesdale Bar: Home for not just the Clydesdale exhibitors but all associated with equine pursuits.

Beer and Bull Bar: Where cattlemen go for a smoke and a beer to calm their nerves.

Members' Bar: The premier meeting place for members of the Royal Agricultural Society, with great views of the arena.

Members' Retreat: Across the corridor from the Members'. Oldies go there to escape revellers.

Woodchop Bar: An open-air affair beside the woodchopping stadium.