Billed as one of the largest events of its type, the Dowerin field days has signalled a return to its roots as an agricultural machinery showcase and flagged plans to make the town’s role in the heavy equipment industry more than just a three-day annual s
Billed as one of the largest events of its type, the Dowerin field days has signalled a return to its roots as an agricultural machinery showcase and flagged plans to make the town’s role in the heavy equipment industry more than just a three-day annual spree.
A proposal to build a permanent exhibition and display structure, complete with motel-style accommodation to allow it to become a machinery and trucking training and test site, is the biggest initiative being steered by newly appointed manager, Greg Ross.
Well known in Perth from his high-profile days as marketing manager for auto retail group Barbagallo, Mr Ross said both his understanding of dealerships and his long-term trucking experience in regional Western Australia would help him with his new role.
He said his first move had been to reinstate the word machinery into the field day’s official name, which includes television station sponsor GWN.
Field days chairman Mike Irvine said the management and committee recognised that the three-day August event had to be up-dated.
Part of that was developing better links with machinery manufacturers and dealers, to ensure they had a stake in the event’s success.
“In the past the machinery field days and machinery dealers have been at arm’s length; we want dealers to feel they have a stake in the field days,” Mr Irvine said.
A farmer in the district, he said the proposed accommodation would create a permanent place for mechanics and salespeople to take part in training sessions on big vehicles.
“It is about making Dowerin the machinery capital,” Mr Irvine told WA Business News.
“Also, we need to update the facilities around the grounds.”
He said public expectations had changed significantly since the field days started in a paddock in 1964.
The event has grown from 20 exhibitors in 1965, the year after its inauguration, to about 700 in recent times, selling a vast array of goods and services from big ticket farm machinery to leisure products and even schooling.
The field days has been upgrading its facilities in recent years to handle crowds of around 30,000 people during the mid-week event.
Last year, a new food hall and visitors centre were added, along with an ambulance first aid base, and a sales office.
Apart from the value to the town of Dowerin, the field days also fund associations from across the Wheatbelt, which provide volunteer labour from the event.
Mr Ross gained celebrity status in Perth, with his enthusiasm for cars and theatrics combining well with the marketing needs of automotive retailing, where publicity has enormous perceived benefits.
But he admits he fell into the car sales business in the 1980s when family reasons drove him to seek employment in Perth and end more than a decade of driving trucks and tour buses around the state.
Mr Ross had returned to trucking business as he reviewed his career following a redundancy from the Barbagallo group in late 2004.
“I was driving a road-train up the Brand Highway when I got the phone call telling me I have got the job,” he said.
Mr Ross said changes in farming were the biggest reason to review the field days.
“Farming has changed completely,” he said. “They [farms] have got bigger, and [equipment] purchases are bigger.”
This changed the way farmersbought machinery, with half-million-dollar investments requiring significant due diligence.
Field days offered a good environment for this.
“It is more relationship building and watching the machinery work,” Mr Ross said.
He said the field days would also increasingly recognise the role of women in commercial side of farming.
“People think of women in the farming world and they think of lavender soaps. It is not like that,” Mr Ross said. “Women are often running the farms in terms of financial matters and computers. They are playing a bigger role in the financial side of things; they are equal partners.”
Some of the initiatives for the field days include a new façade for the Dowerin railway station, with the town celebrating 100 years of rail service this year.
Mr Ross said he was also examining the possibility of a permanent four-wheel drive test track on a site at the edge of the town.
“We want to build a decent one here, the cost isn’t huge,” he said. “I would like to make that open seven days a week for manufacturers and dealers or clubs.
“I would like to have that up and running by the beginning of May.”
There was also Dowerin’s history as a motor racing centre, which Mr Ross said he may tap into as well.
