The Region

The Rabobank FNQ Rotary Field Days is the largest, most comprehensive showcase of agricultural equipment and related products and services in all of Far North Queensland.

The Event’s ‘customer-catchment’ areas include the vast Cape York cattle and mining districts, the Great Western ‘black soil’ Plains and the Gulf of Carpentaria Savannah-lands — and the richly diverse local farming areas of the Atherton Tablelands and the Cassowary Coast, which includes the sugar, banana and aquaculture capitals of Innisfail and Tully.

Over 5,000 farms are within a few hours driving distance of the Walkamin venue — in recent years, more than 100 MINES have been established in the wider FNQ region.

Unlike too much of the rest of Australia, the entire far northern region is unaffected by drought — the rain still falls and we are ‘well-watered’ — everywhere!

The Venue

The centrally located Walkamin Caravan Park (mid-way between Atherton and Mareeba) proved the PERFECT VENUE in 2007. Spacious, lush and green, with NO PROBLEMS with Power or Public Facilities like Rest Rooms and Truck & Car Parks, our new Walkamin site is directly opposite the D.P.I. Research Station, where paddock demonstrations of machinery and implements are conducted.

The D.P.I. Research Station provides a helicopter landing site — other aircraft are accommodated at the nearby Mareeba Aerodrome, only a few minutes from the venue.

Rail services are available to Mareeba, and a bus service from Atherton to Mareeba ‘stops’ directly at the Rabobank FNQ Rotary Field Days ‘front gate’.

25 Years Young—Rabobank Rotary FNQ Field Days Celebrate a Quarter Century of Success.

From fairly little things, big things grow. The Rabobank Rotary FNQ Field Days, now a bi-annual Walkamin event, started as on on-farm field day at Alan Beattie’s property near Malanda in 1986 - a quarter century ago…

The ‘Walkamin’ Field Days were ‘born’ in 1986, when the event moved to vacant land generously made available by the Department of Corrective Services, who were at that time planning a prison on the site.

By 1993, the prison was all-but completed - and the Department suggested that the Clubs relocate the event to what was to become the Prison Farm, a few kilometres away.

The event was held at Lotus Glen Prison Farm throughout the latter 90’s and in to the ‘twenties’. Gangs of Rotary volunteer workers built several semi-permanent facilities at the site, including a bar-cum-cafe, a number of sheds and store- rooms - and an enormous stage.

The stage became the venue for the Combined Clubs Walkamin Country Music Festival, which hosted such country singing stars at John Williamson, Lee Kernaghan, Gina Jeffries, The Wolverines and many more.

One of countless highlights of the event’s Lotus Glen period was a Horse Expo, presented by Atherton's Carrington Stud and hosted by multi-Olympian equestrian Christine Doan, who had represented both Australia and the U.S.A. at Olympic Games.

Livestock however has always been a feature of the event - the Field Days Stud Beef Show, an attraction that harks back to the event’s earliest years, is now a major drawcard. In 2007, Greenmount Stud used the Beef Show for the global launch of an entirely new breed of beast - the Bazadais.

In 2006, Corrective Services, with great regret, were compelled to ‘resume’ the Prison Farm site - due to the fact that crime is a growth industry, and prison expansion necessitated more urgent use of the land.

Anxious to retain the Walkamin ‘brand’ and central location, the Combined Rotary Clubs looked for a new venue - and found it right smack-bang in the middle of the tiny Walkamin township…

The Walkamin Caravan Park - a well-equipped 12 acre site with powered sites and all amenities, right on the Kennedy Highway and directly opposite the Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries Research Station. Perfect - in every respect.

Moving to the new site in 2007, the Field Days leapt-up a level, in terms of attendences and attractions. Now undoubtedly the largest event of it’s kind in Far North Queensland, the Rabobank Rotary FNQ Field Days at Walkamin has attracted almost 10,000 eager patrons in each of it’s two presentations at the Walkamin Van Park venue.

The Field Days are only made possible by the dedication, ‘blood, sweat and tears’ of a small army of local Rotarians and their volunteer helpers. And invalulable sponsors that have included (in the history of the event) Tobacco Growers Trading, SunWater, Austek, Wrights Trailers, Telstra CountryWide, Theiss Australia, Pressure Pumps NQ, Shady Sheds, FGF Developments, and, currently as major sponsor, Rabobank.

Media sponsors include Rural Press, publishers of Country Life and sponsors of the event’s Inventors Contest; and the global News Ltd. group, which includes the Cairns Post, the Weekend Post and the local papers the Tablelander and the Advertiser.

That such major press companies seek to support the Field Days reflects the growth and expansion of the event since it’s humble on-farm origins 25 years ago.