ONE of the stalwarts of the Lockhart Show Society has helped officially open the new poultry pavillion at Lockhart on Sunday, and Malcolm Alexander also came away with second place with his bantam Wyandottes.
Mr Alexander was chief poultry steward with the society for about 45 years.
He started in poultry as a child and started as an assistant steward while still in primary school.
“I used to breed poultry as a schoolkid on the farm, and in 1946, when the Lockhart Show got back to its normal format after the war years, I used to help as an assistant steward when I was at primary school for three years,” Mr Alexander said.
“Being in the bush, I had to go away to boarding school.
“I had five years at Yanco Agricultural High School, but the Lockhart Show was always in the holidays – back then it was in the first week in September and we had three terms – so I’d come home and still help while I was at high school. After I left high school, the chief steward at the time handed the job to me, so I was the chief poultry steward from 1946 to 1990.”
He’s also done a bit of exhibiting over the years, and he got back into it this year, entering chooks in the show for the first time in about 40 years after buying some white Wyandotte bantams.
“There’s a lot involved in getting ready for shows, and I’ve never had to wash birds before because I’ve never had white birds, so I had to ask someone how to wash them.”