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Agfest ticket sales start
THERE is now less than 100
days until the state’s biggest
rural event goes back to the
paddock and on Monday
Tasmanians will be able to
secure their tickets to this year’s
Agfest.
Tickets to this year’s field
days will go on sale at 9am on
February 1.
All Agfest tickets sales
will be conducted online this
year due to COVID-safety
requirements and to allow for
contact tracing.
This year’s Agfest will be
extended to four days and will
run from May 5-8 at Quercus
Park in Carrick.
A limited number of tickets
will be available for each
day, and patrons are being
encouraged to get in early to
secure one.
Agfest media and promotions
manger Dylan Bellchambers
said preparations for the event
were now in full swing.
He said a number of changes
would be made on site this
year to comply with COVID
requirements.
One change will be the
addition of volunteers who will
acts as COVID agents.
Their role will be to wander
around the site and remind
patrons to adhere to socialdistancing requirements.
Mr
Bellchambers
said
applications from exhibitors
were still rolling in.
He said this year’s event
would be better than ever.
Another change this year will
be the distribution of food sites.
Instead of the usual food
pavilion, Mr Bellchambers
said food vendors would be
scattered throughout the site
this year.
Entry and exit to the Agfest
site will be through the usual
north and south gates.
All exhibitors this year will
also have to opportunity to be
be featured in the Agfest in The
cloud online platform.
The online event will be run
after the paddock event from
May 8-15.
For details or to buy tickets
go to www.agfest.com.au.
VINTAGE car drivers will
travel through the Tasmanian
countryside this weekend.
The Veteran Car Club of
Tasmania’s inaugural motoring
journey from Richmond to New
Norfolk will be held on Sunday.
The day starts at 9.30am at
the Richmond Village Green
with proud owners dressed in
period outfits matching their
vehicles. The convoy rolls
out towards New Norfolk at
10.30am with cars divided into
age or style brackets. The cars
will again be on display at New
Norfolk at lunchtime.
Tony Thompson, one of the
organisers of the event said
there were big plans with scope
to grow the event.
“We had plans for a bigger
event this year, in a similar
vein to the Bay to Birdwood
event in South Australia, where
owners dress in period-relevant
costumes to their cars,” he said.
Mr Thompson said insurance
measures had limited the event
to 150 vehicles ranging from
vintage to 1987 models.
For details call 0458 731 615
or 0431 896 172.
Car convoy takes pride in the past
Public Notices
ANIMAL ADVENTURES: Now based at Forth, Jim Reilly worked as a veterinarian in Australia’s
tropical north where his interest in horses was sparked.
Picture: KAROLIN MACGREGOR
Another big change has been
an increase in the number of
women vets and the change
in requirements to study at
university.
“To get into veterinary
school now you’ve just about
got to have a previous degree,”
he said.
One of the toughest aspects
of the job is making the hard
calls, especially in euthanasia.
“I think I get more emotional
than the client sometimes,’ he
said.
“When you’ve been working
on an animal for some time and
putting your heart and soul into
it and then you lose, it’s really
difficult,” he said.
“I’ve had myself and my
staff standing around with
heads against the wall totally
silent because we’ve lost
something we’ve fought really
hard to save.”
Mr Reilly is semi-retired and
has had three back operations
but still enjoys working,
especially with horses.
DEPARTMENT of STATE GROWTH
Notice of Airborne Geophysical Survey
Contractors MagSpec Pty Ltd, working on behalf of Geoscience Australia and Mineral Resources
Tasmania, intend to conduct an airborne magnetic and radiometric survey over the area indicated below:
Survey operations will take place only in daylight
hours, commencing in February 2021 and continuing
into March.
DEVONPORT
5 425 000mN
LAUNCESTON
DELORAINE
BLOCK 3
LONGFORD
BLOCK 2
BLOCK 1
CAMPBELL
TOWN
ROSS
5 325 000mN
550 000mE
Mr Reilly then spent a
month getting the horses in
good enough condition to
travel before getting a job on
the Ghan train.
“I had to get my horses
down to Victoria, so I booked
them on to the train and by
waffling as I do, I got the job as
train drover,” he said.
“This was a stock train, so
there would have been 200
horses and maybe a 1000 cattle
on the train and it was my job
to look after them. It used to
take several days to get there.”
Mr Reilly said one of the
biggest changes he had seen in
the industry was the shift when
the United States beef market
dried up in the 1970s.
“The Yanks stopped buying,
bang, and prices went to zero,”
he said.
At the time Mr Reilly bought
large in-calf Galloway-cross
cows for 20 cents per head.
He took them back to the sales
eight months later with calves
at foot and got 40c per head.
475 000mE
“Many vets were so bored
with it that they hated it, but I
found it quite good.”
He moved to Tasmania
and set up a practice at Forth
in 1981. He also worked in
Tasmanian abattoirs as well as
farming and teaching at TAFE.
Mr Reilly’s passion for much
of his career has been horses.
“I like working with all
animals, but most of my work
does involve horses,” he said.
It was his work in the NT
that sparked that interest.
“It probably started then,
and with the fact that I was
stupid enough to buy 25 horses
at Wave Hill Station in the
Northern Territory,” he said.
“I just flew up there once
and went to the big clearing
sale of all Thoroughbred stock
at Wave Hill and I just couldn’t
stop putting my finger up.
“At the end of the auction,
I ended up with 25 bloody
horses and thought what am I
going to do with these, because
I lived in Victoria at the time.”
Coordinate datum - GDA94 MGA Zone 55
0
10
20
30
40
50 km
The survey will utilise fixed-wing (block 1) and
helicopter aircraft (blocks 2 and 3) flying predominantly
east-west lines spaced 200 metres apart, at a height
of no less than 80 metres above the ground.
The data acquired will be publicly available, and used
to improve geological understanding of the area, with
applications to groundwater and other resources,
soil mapping and land stability. Previous similar
surveys have covered the entirety of northern and
western Tasmania.
For more information, please see the MRT website
www.mrt.tas.gov.au or telephone (03) 6165 4800.
Dr Mark Duffett
Senior Geophysicist
www.tas.gov.au
TASMANIAN COUNTRY Friday, January 29x, 2021 07