'Ekka' brings country and crowds to Brisbane

Monday, August 13, 2007

More than $10 million worth of cattle are in the centre of Brisbane today, for the city's 131st Royal Queensland Show.

Gates opened on the Brisbane Royal Show yesterday, the show Queenslanders affectionately call the 'Ekka', with organisers nervous that visitor numbers would be down due to a serious outbreak on influenza A.

The flu has not kept the cattle away though, with 2,500 head on the grounds, for both stud and prime cattle competitions.

And it has been a big day already for Darryl Harland from Roma, in southern Queensland, whose pen of six charolais cattle won Grand Champion Pen of the Show; and it is his first time exhibiting at the Ekka.

Also celebrating a first is Jan McMillan, whose dulcet tones will spread across main ring.

This is the first time a woman has been chief ring master at the Ekka.

Sourced from ABC.