Queensland Ag Show Awards 2023 emerging leader nominees revealed

Eight emerging leader nominations were received from Far North Queensland to the south west.

The winner will be named at a dinner in Brisbane on March 18.

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The nominations for the Emerging Leader Award are:

Anthony Niebling has been a member of the Boonah Show Society for more than half his lifetime.

Now 34, he was 18 when he first joined and is currently the vice president of the management committee, president of the Show Ball committee, Show Space steward and chief steward of the Night Show program.

He has held committee positions for the last 16 years and also represented Boonah as a rural ambassador twice.

He was an inaugural member of the Junior Show committee, which was formed at Boonah High School in 2002 when Anthony was in about Year 9 at the time.

The committee will be celebrating its 20^th birthday this year and is made up entirely by students from their local high school, sometimes 80 to 130 of them, who resume junior steward roles.

Many of them have gone on to become active members of the society.

Anthony is described as "level headed, makes well researched decisions, and is involved and knowledgeable with all aspects of management, not just at show time".

In the last 15 years, Anthony has seen and been part of major developments of the grounds including the purchase of two neighbouring houses (a caretaker residence and investment) and a small camping ground.

His great skills in organising working bees and preparing the grounds for the show is legendary, his nomination said.

Hannah Currie hasn't let her age or location stop her involvement with the Charleville Show.

Ever since a toddler, she could be found at the show alongside her stewarding mother and in high school, she'd take the day off to help assist on judging day.

At 13 Hannah entered the Junior Miss Showgirl and raised $3900 for the society.

When she was 18 she took on the coordinator role of the competition and also entered the Charleville Showgirl competition where she was awarded the Community Spirit Award.

While Hannah moved to Toowoomba for a few years, she was always willing to help. When she moved back to the south west, she assisted with the 2021 show for a whole week, in the lead up and throughout the event.

She was living in Mitchell but still willingly put her hand up for the secretary position when it remained vacant.

Hannah brought local involvement and performances back to the show in 2022 and is coordinating a Little Miss and Master competition.

Amanda Findlay's passion and dedication for the Gin Gin Show Society has seen her volunteer her time for the last seven years.

Her unwavering commitment to the society and the broader community is said to be truly inspiring, according to her nomination.

Amanda's involvement began when she was a young girl, and her enthusiasm has only grown from then.

She has participated in various competitions, such as showgirl and rural ambassador, and she has become a well-known and respected member of the community, who is always willing to lend a helping hand to others.

One of Amanda's most significant contributions to the society has been her involvement in the beginnings of the Young Farmers' Challenge.

Amanda recognised the importance of engaging young people and encouraging them to become involved.

She was instrumental in developing the competition format, identifying sponsors, and recruiting participants

Her efforts helped to establish the challenge as a crucial event for the society, which helps to foster an interest in agriculture among young people and encourages them to consider careers in the industry.

She has consistently demonstrated her leadership skills by actively raising the profile of agricultural shows through her participation in competitions and by volunteering her time to organise and manage events.

Her efforts have helped to attract new members to the society and engage the community in the events and activities.

Toby and Cassie Worley have busy lives but they always find a way to lend a hand and get things done.

The pair are said to have made made an outstanding contribution to the Monto Show and broader Burnett show community.

In running the Monto State High School Show Cattle Club, they regularly give up their weekends to facilitate and supervise the team in attending competitions and excursions, some as far as Brisbane and Rockhampton.

They even developed a market garden with students as a way of teaching and also raising funds for their program.

Toby and Cassie have been an integral part of the Monto Show Society for the last four years and put their hands up to take on positions that are a major time commitment.

They are said to consistently go above and beyond with their contributions as senior vice president (Toby) and management committee member (Cassie).

They are also stewards for the giant pumpkin section and assist with all the cattle sections, all while guiding their students.

Toby and Cassie have also been instrumental in the introduction of the Young Famers' Challenge to the Monto Show, running this competition for a number of years and always looking to add new events and challenges to for both the competitors and to entertain the crowd.

This event is now a feature of the Saturday evening entertainment and is hotly contested.

Justin grew up in Brisbane with his family but it couldn't stop the fire for agriculture that was burning inside him.

Visiting his grandparents after school and mustering on a family property on weekends eventually led to him joining the Hendra Pony Club to compete, steward and judge.

An encounter with the Mt Gravatt Show's vice president and ringmaster Gary Price kickstarted his show involvement.

In 2013, at 21, Justin was invited to be a horse steward for the show and the next year it was extended to include stewarding the Big Rig Spectacular and Ute Muster. He has continued in that role ever since.

In 2017 he spent time in the nomination office and after noticing the paper based system decided to develop multiple computerised spreadsheets to manage the nominations.

In 2020 Justin was elected vice president.

Despite his day job sending him across Australia, he still regularly attends show meetings, sometimes by Zoom.

In 2021 Justin started to look after the social media marketing for the Mt Gravatt Show, as well as developing posters and web content for the society's new web page.

His work saw Facebook posts grow to reach 34,399 people and he later created an Instagram page.

His aim is to reduce the amount of paperwork for stewards and as much as possible have all entries and payments available on the website.

Last year he also took on ring master and in 2023 plans to attend 14 shows to work with them and gain fresh ideas.

Dannielle moved to Quilpie with her husband Dale in 2014.

Although she had no previous involvement in the show movement she joined the Quilpie committee in 2015 and is now the president.

She also takes control of the trade stalls, co-organises the entertainment along with coordinating the Quilpie Show social media, promoting and marketing.

The show has taken on a new direction with Dannielle at the helm.

She is quick to find an alternative when things don't go to plan; a mechanical bull competition was established when the 2019 rodeo was cancelled and she got camels on the race track for the first time in more than 10 years.

In 2020 a virtual show took place and the infamous scarecrow competition became a mapped trail for visitors to check off and potentially win a cash prize.

2021 saw the Showmen's Guild rides pull out a couple of weeks prior to the show but despite the struggles, Dannielle and her committee attracted a record crowd through the gate and connected with state-wide media for publicity.

The quest for attracting sideshow contractors to the small rural shows will continue however thinking outside the square to ensure the Quilpie and District Show continues into the future is paramount on Dannielle's agenda.

The Warwick Show is the best week of the year, just ask Denise Ryan.

The management committee member has spent her entire life involved in small community agricultural shows.

She works so tirelessly for the show that sometimes she can spend 30 hours, on top of her career, to get things done.

Denise moved to Warwick in 2012 from Longreach and in 2020 she entered the Warwick Showgirl Competition where she was runner up.

In 2021/2022 she was the show's rural ambassador winner and travelled to shows across the region.

It's something she is so passionate about that she intends to grow the competition and local involvement.

Denise joined the Warwick Management Committee in 2022 and was appointed office manager. Among her achievements is implementing a tent city to deal with the lack of accommodation in the region for the Warwick Rodeo 2022.

With her witty sense of humour and hard work ethics Denise is said to be bringing "wonderful ideas" to the 2023 Warwick Show including a Young Farmers Challenge, wood chopping, increasing school involvement and rising sponsorship from local community organisations.

Shelley Doyle has helped resurrect dwindling competitions and helped grow old ones at the Warwick Show.

While she has been involved with the event from a young age, she became more involved in 2007 when she first entered the Warwick Showgirl competition.

She entered the Rural Ambassador competition in 2011, motivating her to make sure more younger people got involved within the show movement.

She took on vice show chairperson and chief steward of the stud cattle and led steer section.

Having only competed in the past, it was daunting to suddenly run a section, her nomination said.

But she was able to grow low participation in junior competitions to more than 80 children in each with some schools from as far as Caboolutre travelling to compete.

In 2017 she held a two-day cattle judging school in Warwick, separate to show time, so school aged participants could attend and gain further knowledge and experience.

She introduced 'The Pat Flynn Shield of Excellence' in 2018, named after her own cattle showing mentor, Pat Flynn for a recipient under the age of 30 years with a keen desire for not only the cattle industry, but the agriculture industry as a whole.

The growing number of school saw her start an interschool point scoring competition in 2021.

Outside of the cattle ring, she established a lego section in 2019, and started a Prime Cattle Young Judges competition in 2017.

In the same year she created an area for all children attending the show to be able to experience numerous facets of the show, from decorating cupcakes, to creating sheep with off cut fleece, to even looking at real bee hives and making bees wax candles and creating their own grass head creations to enter in the horticulture section for the following years show.

She has stepped up to help out at numerous other show societies across the region.

In 2017 Shelley was runner up Darling Downs Rural Ambassador and accepted the Reserve Chamber Delegate at the 2018 AGM.

As a result she now helps out with young judges and paraders competitions at a sub chamber level.