IT may have taken more than 1000 days but the Royal Queensland Show's school paraders competition returned in style.
However, despite the last competition taking place in 2019, the surname on the trophy remained the same as Kingaroy High School's Gorgie Plowman took out top honours.
The 17-year-old followed in the footsteps of her sister Chloe, who was the last student to win the competition before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the past two shows to be cancelled.
Showing a 20-month-old heifer from her family's Ruby Ridge Angus stud, Monday's victory was the result of many years of hard work for Gorgie.
"I've been parading since I was 13 years old and the first time I did it was during the juniors at Beef Week," she said.
"However, I didn't win anything up there but have been doing the circuit ever since.
"We start getting the cattle ready for the show about a year out by feeding them up, getting them used to being shown and a lot of hard work goes into that.
"So it is very exciting to get a win, especially because the Ekka has been gone for so long, and to follow in my sister's footsteps was really special as well."
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Despite having career aspirations of being a flight attendant, Gorgie said her family's Kingaroy property will always be in her blood.
"I'm always going to be helping with the cattle on our family's farm," she said.
"I really enjoy it and I can't ever see that changing."
Overjudge Aimee Bolton, Toowoomba, formerly Shepparton, Victoria, had the tough task of picking a winner from the 180 students from across Queensland and NSW, who entered this year's competition.
However, she eventually awarded Gorgie with the champion broad ribbon ahead of Josephine Green, Hunter Valley, NSW, who was awarded the reserve champion ribbon for parading a Simmental heifer.
Ms Bolton said she was looking for a parader who was "cool, calm and collected" and who knew their animal.
"The final six paraders were a great example of the quality that's been on display today [Monday] and it came down to just the little things," she said.
"I thought the winner did a fantastic job and like I said it was the finer details such as making sure the heifer was alert, looking its best and standing really well.
"She had really good control throughout the day from standing the heifer up, to parading, everything was done with a lot of control."
Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
