There were cows, horses and enough Bertie Beetles to go around, but the elephant in the tent at the Sydney Royal Easter Show was the cost-of-living crisis sparked by rising fuel prices.
Thousands flocked to day two, and by 9am on Friday the Showground was full of excited children and exhausted parents trying to navigate what is typically the busiest day of the event. For those who have worked the Show before, however, there was a notable difference in attendance.
Speaking outside the Sea Circus Fun House, carnival ride operator Anthony Curran said there were fewer people than usual for Good Friday. He blamed it on the cost of living and the rising price of fuel.
“Everything, everything’s going up. [The] government don’t realise that everything’s going up and no one’s wages are going up,” he said.
Curran said it cost more than $1000 to transport the ride from Melbourne to Sydney Olympic Park. When asked if the expense was worthwhile, he shrugged. “We’ve got to make money. Everyone’s got to make money,” he said.
On Wednesday, NSW Premier Chris Minns told travellers to continue with their plans for the Easter long weekend, saying fuel supply should be available as price cuts flow through to the bowser. The price of diesel is up more than a dollar in NSW since the war began in Iran.
Elsewhere in the city, retailers started trading at 5am to prepare for an expected Good Friday crowd at the Sydney Fish Market. While the market was relatively subdued in the morning, a spokeswoman said 65,000 people had visited by mid-afternoon.
Those keen to head out of town also made a beeline north, and Easter traffic on the Pacific Highway beyond Hornsby was steady but appeared thinner than last year’s exodus.
At the Easter Show with six very excited children, Alice Bateman was happy but finding it a challenge to keep to her budget. “There’s lots of attractions we’re trying to find, the wood chopping, so the free attractions we’re trying to take to as well. There’s lots to see,” she said.
“We initially had a budget, I think that’s almost gone out the window, but see how the day goes. It’s very expensive because you’ve got to pay a lot to come in, and you’ve got to pay for rides and the showbags.”
For the Bateman family, it was either the Easter show or eggs this long weekend – it was too expensive to have both.
“You want to keep the kids happy, so they get excited and they want to go here, do this, do that. So initially we intended to just do a couple [of] rides, a couple [of] showbags. Again, that’s almost gone out the window – and we’ve only been here an hour,” she said.
Farmers have travelled thousands of kilometres and spent hundreds of dollars in fuel to attend the show – but they wouldn’t miss it for the world. Despite the nation facing record-high fuel prices, the annual show has served as a much-needed reprieve for many farmers, including cattle farmer Geoff Payne.
Payne, who has been involved in the Show for almost 20 years, said the trip was worth it for the exposure it provides – and the community. “[The farmers] look out for each other,” he said.
Payne said the cost of a 2½-hour journey from the Hunter Valley with 11 cattle hit him the hardest this year. Unlike many other farmers, Payne was lucky enough to fill up on fuel before prices began to skyrocket, but he was concerned about how much it would cost him to get home and the ongoing costs of managing a farm.
“It’s sort of doubled in price,” he said. “The way things are done nowadays … I mean, we don’t use horse and plough any more, we use tractor and plough. There’s a lot of people to feed.”
Fellow cattle farmer Charlotte Stevens and her 12-year-old daughter Elsie drove for eight hours from northern Victoria to compete at the Show for the first time on Friday.
“It wasn’t probably a great experience. We didn’t actually have trouble getting fuel on the way, but it was right up there, price-wise,” she said.
The Show had a tumultuous day one on Thursday, when its digital app, the Fun Pass, went down, preventing many attendees from accessing prepaid credits for rides. An event spokesperson has since confirmed that people can secure a refund for unused credits but will have to wait until April 14 to receive the funds.
Digital wallets will be deleted a month later and won’t carry over to next year’s Show.
Ellie Busby is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.