State's emerging leaders of show movement revealed

Six emerging leader nominations were received, many from the southern parts of the state.

The winner will be named at a dinner in Brisbane on March 16.

The nominations for the Emerging Leader Award are:

Adam Tokely was 13 when he started helping at the canteen and by 16 he was 'gopher' secretary.

Two years later he took up ground announcing and now, at 35, is an announcer for 11 different shows.

In 2017, Adam revived the Kids Passport activity that had been inactive for around seven years and the following year he initiated an Agri Education Pavilion.

More recently he designed a Show Shirt for volunteers to feel a sense of belonging and negotiated with a local high school to attend a 'mock' beef cattle competition. In 2022 he reintroduced the local showgirl competition after a 10 year hiatus and in 2023 he developed new evening entertainment; the Dayboro Pineapple Toss.

He has held numerous executive positions at the Dayboro Show, sub chamber and Qld Ag Shows Next Gen levels.

It was while spending time interning for her TAFE course in 2022 that Bethany McDonald found a love for the Mudgeeraba Show.

Her initial role as an intern quickly evolved into an integral position within the society's office and she is now a leader of the show community.

The South East Queensland Showgirl winner visited Beaudesert, Canungra, Gatton, Gold Coast, and Mt. Gravatt shows, to grasp various processes and procedures very quickly.

In the last 12 months alone she has taken on the management, timetabling and communications of a range of competitions and show initiatives, coordinating the Young Farmers Challenge and supporting the show's president with the recruitment, management, communication and rostering of the volunteers for the Mudgeeraba Show.

At 26, Brianna Hurley isn't afraid to help out with any job - even researching and organising 9000 flyers for a letterbox drops.

Having grown up in a family with a strong dedication to their local show society, Brianna spent her younger years involved anywhere she could, serving in the canteens, selling showbags, participating in working bees, helping in the cattle pavilions.

In 2017 she won the Cooyar Showgirl competition and in 2023 she was named Queensland Rural Ambassador runner up.

Brianna's passion for the cattle industry saw her assisting with the organisation of the stud beef cattle competition where she implemented free tick inspections for competitors and introduced spreadsheets to assist with the compilation of entries and judging results.

When a campdraft was organised to complement the show in 2018, Brianna was heavily involved in all preparations and the following year at 22 she was appointed secretary.

Since then she has established the Showgirl and Rural Ambassador High Tea to replace the traditional Show Ball, started a Young Farmers Challenge, created the Cooyar Show Facebook page and led letterbox flyer drops, which helped lift patronage to record levels.

Between university, hobbies, working full time in admin and helping on her family's property, Elly Close still finds time to dedicate to the Crows Nest Show Society.

The 2023 Darling Downs Showgirl is the coordinator of the showgirl and rural ambassador competition, show ball organiser, sub chamber delegate, next gen delegate plus a member of the entertainment committee, social media assistant and working bee volunteer.

In January she successfully reignited the Crow's Nest Show Camp, which had been put on hold for 10 years after being originally organised by her grandparents.

Taking on one role with a show society is a big effort but what about two at the same time?

Jasmine Bethel was 23 when she took over the "failing" art show as part of the Sunshine Coast Agricultural Show in 2016 and reinvented it to run at a profit.

Two years later she took on the treasurer role, despite having minimal experience, and later said yes to the secretary role when a midterm vacancy arose. She accepted both positions at the recent AGM.

She has also taken on the show's representation on the Near North Coast Show Sub-Chamber and "in return freely offers her valued learnt knowledge".

Jasmine is said to have the ability to consider different perspectives and has provided recommendations to broaden the show's competition schedules to be more inclusive and identified potential issues on the grounds relating to disabilities.

Matthew Hillier was just 15 years of age when he asked the president of the Fraser Coast Agriculture Show Society, "what does the show society do for members my age?"

That was in 2019 and in the five years since Matthew is "one of the first three" people after the show has concluded helping to pull down marquees, clean up and do obvious jobs without being asked.

In 2022 when the main pavilion was being redeveloped, a large area of the showgrounds was left without power; it was Matthew who organized a diesel pod for the back of his ute and made sure the four generators were fueled and maintained.

He introduced the Young Farmers Challenge and is the driving force behind the return of a show ball.

In the director position, he has started a FCASS Next Gen and holds monthly meetings with 18 to 32 year olds.