The Australian alpaca industry celebrated a significant milestone at this year's Sydney Royal Show - the 30th anniversary of its inclusion.
From its modest beginnings in the old Paddington Showground in 1992, the alpaca section of the Sydney Royal has grown impressively, emerging from drought, flood and pandemics to show around 250 alpacas and 240 fleeces in 2022, entered by over 70 studs drawn from all over Australia.
The alpacas have already been busy at the show in the first week, with their inclusion in Little Hands on the Land, where a small group of alpacas under the care of the Alpaca Youth Group have been introduced up close and personal to the general public, and have been led in the first two Grand Parades by an enthusiastic team of eight Rural Achievers, all of them new to alpacas.
They have also been host to a busload of school students from Lake Cargelligo, who have never seen alpacas, in a relay race organised by the Youth Groups of the Australian Alpaca Association and the Royal Agricultural Society, and have appeared live on television with the Alpaca Youth Group.
The Alpaca section runs both fleece and halter competitions, in separate huacaya and suri classes, to be judged conjointly by one Australian and one New Zealand judge.
There are also Young Paraders, Schools, and Junior Judging Competitions conducted in the Munroe Pavilion, together with a standing Fleece to Fashion display, alpaca merchandise, and Walk an Alpaca, where members of the public can have the opportunity to lead an alpaca.
Alpacas will also be included in the Young Farmers Challenge, conducted by the RAS Youth Group.
The Sydney Royal is now well established as one of the major shows in the national alpaca calendar.
Curiously, and somewhat unbelievably, there was a much earlier inclusion of alpacas in The Show extending back almost 150 years to The Great Exhibition in 1879, some 20 years after the importation of the first alpacas into Australia in the 1850s.
What began then as a bold adventure into a new agricultural industry, ended sadly with the gradual disappearance of alpacas from NSW, along with the government assistance and subsidies that had prompted their importation.
It was not until 1988 that Australia celebrated the second coming of alpacas with importation of animals sourced originally from Chile, and on this occasion the industry has gone on to thrive with major holdings across all states of the nation, and numbers now in excess of 100,000 Australia wide.
The Australian alpaca industry is highly respected worldwide as a quality source of both fleece and live animals, with exports to NZ, France, Germany, Italy, Korea , South Africa, Canada, India, Thailand, China, UK, and Turkey, to name just a few.
