Showbags
Entertainment & Attractions
Exhibitions & Displays
Animal Nursery Precinct – FREE
This year the popular Animal Nursery will feature more than 450 animals of 18 different varieties to meet and cuddle! The Animal Nursery will house a large patting pen that will extend outside to include alpacas, lambs, kids, calves, pigs, chooks, emus, ducklings and rabbits.
You can also feed one of the animals at one of the scheduled Animal Nursery Feeding Times as well as watch the interactive wildlife show that is Animals of Oz.
Art, Craft and Cookery – FREE
The Art, Craft & Cookery Pavilion is always a popular attraction at the show! Featuring all sorts of amazing works of art, you can gaze at outstanding embroidery, marvel at the decorated cakes and be surprised by the creativity of Victorians with the decorated shoe competition.
The Makers Alley located in the Art, Craft and Cookery Pavilion is a new place for crafters of one-of-a-kind creations to sell direct to the public. Meet the makers of a range of individually handmade ceramics, beads and jewellery, paper crafts, glass, skin care and textiles of all descriptions.
There's also an opportunity to join in at the Craft Hub with Make and Take, Look and Learn plus the new Sew and Show workshops!
Sustainable Backyard – FREE
Sponsored by the City of Melbourne and Hills.
New to the Show this year, the Sustainable Backyards offers fun, interactive, educational demonstrations. Learn how to incorporate different components into your backyard to become more self-sufficient and environmentally friendly. See how a Dairy goat is milked and learn about having poultry in your backyard.
Be inspired by the achievable garden designs or learn more about worm farms and composting as well as other practical sustainable ideas for your garden including water tanks and solar powered watering systems.
While you’re there check out one of the great competitions running including:
Enter the draw to win a $250 Hills product voucher
Simply purchase a Super Show Trail Bag at any information point at the Show and visit the Sustainable Backyard to enter. You will need to count how many socks are on the clothes line and fill out entry form and place it in the box at the exhibit in the Sustainable Backyard.
Fat Fruit Greenhouses Competition - Win a Greenhouse for your School
Visit the Fat Fruit Greenhouse exhibit in the Sustainable Backyard to find out more and collect your entry form. You will need to send Fat Fruit Greenhouses a 3minute DVD, explaining why your school would love a fat Fruit Greenhouse and where you would place it in the school. You then go into the draw to win an Australian made 2.3m by 2.3m Fat Fruit Greenhouse valued at $2932 with super tough patented panelling - 250 times stronger than glass and easy to use vents, great for the kids.
Send Entries to: Victorian Schools Garden Awards C/o Nursery & Garden Industry Victoria, PO Box 2280 Wattletree Road LPO East Malvern VIC 3145 by 30 October 2011.
The winner will be announced at the Victorian Schools Garden Awards presentation day at the Royal Botanic Gardens at 10am on Thursday 1st December 2011. As an added bonus all schools that enter are invited to attend.
Win with Rainwise at the Royal Melbourne Show
Make the most of your water and use clever water systems with the Rainwise range of water tanks, no dig garden beds and even swimming pools.
Visit the Rainwise exhibit in the Sustainable Backyard and drop your complete entry form, into the entry box and you could win a fabulous Rainwise raised garden bed valued at $279. Entries close at 6pm, 4th October 2011. The winner will be notified by Rainwise within 7 days.
The Sustainable Backyard will be open from 9.30am – 6.00pm each day.
NGIV Discovery Garden – FREE
The NGIV (Nursery & Garden Industry of Victoria) Discovery Garden brings all the joy of gardening to the show with family orientated and interactive children's activities. Enjoy the family picnic area with park benches, tables and grassed areas or get practical tips and hits from the presentations given by gardening celebrities. Located on the NGIV Discovery Garden is the children's gardening activity Little Green Thumbs.
The NGIV Discovery Garden is Open from 9.30am – 6.00pm daily. There's also some family friendly rides on the NGIV Discovery Garden for you to enjoy.
Flowers Victoria – FREE
The Flowers Victoria display in the Flowers, Gardening & Pets Pavilion features spectacular floral displays with growers on hand to provide expert advice on all aspects of the care, use and production of cut flowers. There will also be flower arranging demonstrations, an interactive floral activity for children and professional and student floristry competitions. The flower market will give you the opportunity to purchase some flowers so you can try some floristry at home!
Flowers Victoria Floristry Competition Results
Week 1
Rosettes presented by The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria
| The Melbourne Urn, by floral artists | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Wona Bae, Flowers Vasette | |
| 2nd | Giang Truong, Strathmore Flowers | |
| 3rd | Melanie, Cecilia Fox | |
| The Floral Gift, by professional florists | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Fanny Chevrier, Flowers Vasette | |
| Equal 2nd | Tuyen Haong | |
| Equal 2nd | Carly Haslem, Grandiflora | |
| 3rd | Wona Bae, Flowers Vasette | |
Week 2
Rosettes presented by The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria
| The Melbourne Urn, by floral artists | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Wona Bae, Flowers Vasette | |
| 2nd | Emily Karanikolopoulos, Creative Designs | |
| 3rd | Danielle Fraser, Moss Industry | |
| The Floral Gift, by student florists | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Quynh Phan, Box Hill TAFE | |
| 2nd | Hilary O’Sullivan, Box Hill TAFE | |
| 3rd | Lauren Auld, Marjorie Milner College | |
Young Farmers challenge – FREE
New to this year's show, the Young Farmers Challenge will be held in the Animal Entertainment Zone on Sunday 25 September. Be entertained and educated as you watch teams of farmers battle it out in four different farming activities to be the 2011 Royal Melbourne Show Champions!
Animals of Oz – FREE
The Animal Nursery Precinct is where you'll find Animals of Oz, an interactive wildlife education program that features Australia's native wildlife.
Herald Sun Animal Entertainment Zone – FREE
Be sure to experience the Animal Wranglers Barry and Lachie showing off their remarkable horse handling skills. Their true love and respect for these fine creatures is displayed in their spectacular show that everyone is sure to enjoy.
Don’t miss Frisbee Dogs Show. Catch the dogs jumping high into the air, performing tricks and catching Frisbees in this highly entertaining show.
Also in the Herald Sun Animal Entertainment Zone is the Pedigree Working Dogs Demo. The act demonstrates the Australian kelpie working sheep. The show features a young dog starting to work sheep through to a fully trained dog. The demonstration helps people to relate their pet dog’s actions and attitudes to those of the working dogs.
Celebrating the International Year of Forests
To celebrate, a group of Victorian farmers have come to town to promote the many values they see for planting trees on farms. The Otway Agroforestry Network is hosting a two-day expo in the Woodchop Pavilion at this year’s Royal Melbourne Show. They will be cooking native bush foods on wood-fired ovens, demonstrating how they grow Shiitake mushrooms on logs, milling farm-grown timbers for high-value furniture and demonstrating how trees can improve farm production, animal welfare and wildlife habitat.
As they grow, trees lock-up carbon dioxide which can then be stored in furniture and buildings while more trees are planted. Using wood for heating and electricity is carbon-neutral and provides a clean alternative to fossil fuels. People need trees and trees need people. Come along to the Woodchop Pavilion on Monday October 3 and Tuesday October 4 and join in the celebration. At 11.00am, 1.00pm and 3.00pm enjoy the Cooking on Wood presentation, Bushfood delights and carbon free living.
Perhaps you’d like to attend the Shiitake Mushroom Workshop at 2.00pm each day. During this course participants get to inoculate a shiitake log they can then take home and they also receive a Growers Manual. (Please note there is a fee to attend this workshop, the course runs for approximately 1 hour and bookings are required).
Other displays include seed collection, tree propagation, planting, pruning and sawmilling. Get along to the Woodchop Pavilion to highlight and celebrate the International Year of Forests.
