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News
Rural events
succumb to
virus curbs
KAROLIN MACGREGOR
ANOTHER popular Tasmanian
country event has been
cancelled due to the impact of
COVID-19.
Organisers of the Taste of the
Huon event have announced
that this year’s event will not go
ahead.
The committee announced
the cancellation on the event’s
Facebook page. The celebration
of food, beverages and local
produce was due to be held
from March 7-8.
“This is not a decision
we’ve taken lightly, and as a
committee of dedicated hardworking volunteers, this event
is a huge part of our lives
and no doubt the lives of the
stallholders and people from
across Tasmania, that support
the festival year after year,” the
organisers said.
The committee said the
decision had been made to
protect attendees in the wake
of recent COVID-19 outbreaks
interstate.
They also said Tasmania’s
current limitations on crowd
numbers and the cost of running
the event meant it would not be
financially viable.
Taste of the Huon usually
attracts thousands of patrons
to the Ranelagh Showgrounds
over two days across the March
long weekend.
The committee said staging
the event this year could
potentially put the future of the
Taste of the Huon in jeopardy.
The cancellation comes after
another popular food event,
the Koonya Garlic Festival on
the Tasman Peninsula, has also
been called off this year.
Due to be held next month,
the Koonya committee has
announced its next festival will
now be in 2022.
Despite the cancellation
of this year’s festival, the
committee will still go ahead
with its annual competition for
garlic growers.
Entries for this year’s
competition will be judged on
February 26 and the entries will
be shown in the Koonya Hall on
February 27.
Judges will award prizes
on February 26 and the
presentation will be available
on the event’s website. For
competition details go to
www.koonyagarlicfestival.org.
Last year the COVID pandemic and associated restrictions wreaked havoc on Tasmanian rural events, with the
agricultural show season as well
as smaller events cancelled.
Funding extended
for safety program
GOVERNMENT funding for
a key Tasmanian workplace
safety program has been
extended by 12 months.
The State Government is
extending funding for the Safe
Farming Tasmania program for
a further 12 months to the end
of June 2022.
The funding is part of the
Government’s Agricultural Workforce
Resilience
Package
announced in September.
Safe
Farming
Tasmania
funding has also been boosted
by $150,000 per year for the
next two financial years to
provide for the appointment
of a second senior health and
safety advisor.
The new advisor is Stuart
Beams, who has 19 years of
experience in the work health
and safety area, particularly
among rural communities. He
will join Phill John as a senior
safe farming work health and
safety advisor working to
improve the health and safety of
Tasmanians in the rural sector.
The Safe Farming Tasmania
program is a joint initiative
between WorkSafe Tasmania
and the Department of Primary
Industries, Parks, Water and
Environment.
Its focus aim is to reduce
farm-related deaths, injury and
disease by raising awareness of
safety issues, building leadership and influencing attitudes
by targeted information and
working with industry stakeholders to provide training and
education.
Similar programs have been
developed in NSW and Victoria
over the past year using the
Tasmanian model.
To find out more visit www.
dpipwe.tas.gov.au/agriculture/
safe-farming-tasmania
06 TASMANIAN COUNTRY Friday, January 29, 2021
A vet reflects on his five decades of caring
for animals here and in the Top End and
his many adventures along the way.
Karolin MacGregor reports
W
HEN Jim
Reilly’s
dreams of
becoming a
farmer did
not work out he decided on the
next best thing and became a
veterinarian instead.
Since then, his passion for
helping animals and a thirst for
adventure have seen him work
in some of Australia’s most
challenging environments.
Five decades on, Mr Reilly
is just as enthusiastic about the
profession. Now based at Forth
in the North-West, he still
works part time.
His journey started in
the early 1960s when he
studied veterinary science at
Melbourne University.
“My parents were not rich,
but because I did fairly well at
uni I got a cadetship to go to
the Department of Territories
when they were in charge of
the New Guinea operations,”
he said.
“I got transferred to the
Northern Territory, which I
absolutely loved.”
Straight out of university, Mr
Reilly described his experience
as swashbuckling.
“It certainly wasn’t like it is
now,” he said. “Katherine still
had a dirt main street then.”
After starting off in Darwin,
Mr Reilly went to Alice
Springs before getting a job at
the district veterinary office at
Katherine.
“There were no private vets
except in Darwin, so most of
our work was involved with the
brucellosis and TB eradication
campaign. That was your main
reason for existence as far as
the Northern Territory went.
“However, there being no
private vets, we also did a lot
of horses and country race
meetings and dogs and cats and
all sorts of other things. It was
quite a multi-species practice.”
Mr Reilly had a pilot license
and his own airplane, which
made getting around the NT a
little easier.
“It wasn’t always convenient
though, because not
everywhere had airstrips, so
mostly I worked out of an old
Falcon ute,” he said.
“I was just a green young vet
learning everything and almost
everyone I met knew more
about the job than I did.”
Mr Reilly said conditions
were often fairly basic, but that
was all part of the experience.
“Air-conditioning was very
rare. We stayed in everything
from the swag mostly to the
occasional bed.”
The stations were huge and
it could take six to eight weeks
to muster the cattle.
“I remember so often there
we would start and dawn and
be out until dusk.
“They were mostly
Shorthorn back then and the
Brahman and Santa Gertrudis
‘
I was just a
green young
vet learning
everything and
almost everyone
I met knew more
about the job
than I did
JIM REILLY
were getting more popular,”
he said.
Mr Reilly spent seven years
in the NT before setting up his
own practice at Port Fairy in
Victoria.
After eight years in his
own practice, he joined
the Department of Primary
Industries doing inspections at
abattoirs.
He was managing a team of
inspectors and was responsible
for maintaining the quality of
meat bound for export markets.
“It was a good job if you
made it a good job and really
took an interest in the work.