John Gibson

In 1962 we moved to a dairy farm on the corner of Caniaba Rd and the Bruxner Highway. We dairied there and ran pigs. I went to school at South Gundarimba then Lismore High.

 

I left school when I was 15 and worked in the office for AK Barnes & Sons, the building firm in Wyrallah Rd. I was there for 19 years. Shortly after starting there that started to make pre fabricated roof trusses. Over the years, my two brothers, two uncles, my nephew and my son all worked there over time. They continued to build houses and I was in the office doing estimations and quotes. I got to travel up and down the coast selling roof trusses. It was a family sort of business.

 

AK Barnes & Sons used to have displays at the North Coast National Show so the whole time I worked there we had a big site in the Claude Reilly pavilion, so I had 19 shows.

 

I married Ellen in 1971. She was Ellen Strong from Fairy Hill and I met her when she came back from Sydney as a Pharmacist. We lived in Ballina for about 9 months and then bought a farm opposite the old Post Office in South Gundarimba and that’s where we still live today.

 

We had three kids and Ellen wanted to go back to work. We didn’t have much money but there was a little pharmacy in Keen St Lismore for sale. It was where Traditional Medicinals was and used to be a Chemist. Ellen worked there and I continued to work at Barnes. After a couple of years I went on long service leave and never returned.

 

The Chemist who owned the Woodlark St Pharmacy had passed away. Relieving at that shop was Graham Croker and in the end we amalgamated the two shops and he became a partner for a few years before he retired. 18 years ago we sold that pharmacy and moved out to the farm. We have 350 acres and run an Angus cattle stud. Our son Rodney now works fro Elders in Lismore and he’s part of the business. We used to take the bulls to Toowoomba for many years to sell until that market stalled. We now have a bull sale ourselves at Casino at the Primex site.

We have two daughters, one is an Accountant in Sydney and the other is a Nurse down near Maitland. We have 7 grandkids. Rodney has three, our daughter near Maitland has three and our daughter in Sydney has one child.

 

My father showed chooks before the war and when he returned we showed chooks from when I was about seven. We’ve shown them ever since. We used to show them as the Gibson Brothers with my brother Geoffrey. He ended up going into sheep dog trials. He’s represented Australia five times against New Zealand with sheep dogs and he’s one of the top in Australia.

I still judge poultry in many States of Australia. I’ve judged 35 consecutive Sydney Royal Easter Shows in Poultry. I’ve judged the Major award 6 times at the Sydney Royal. I’ve also judged at The Brisbane Royal and Sydney Royal. I breed three varieties of chooks, large White Leghorns, large White Wyandottes and large Old English Game.

 

In 1984 we started an Angus Stud and the bulk of our cattle came from South Australia. We showed cattle all over and we won major awards in Brisbane and Melbourne. Rodney won a youth scholarship to the university in America through the Angus society and he spent a few months over there.

 

I’ve been Secretary for 11 years with the Lismore Poultry Club, Secretary of the Far North Coast All-game Poultry Club. The All-Game Club show has only ever had a Gibson as President for the 60 odd years it’s been going…my father, my brother and myself. I’m currently the President of the Lismore Poultry Club.

 

I’ve been President of the Lismore Show, the North Coast National since 1988. My first show in 1988 was terrible because it was the same year as Expo in Brisbane and we struck a heat wave. At the show in the main ring, it was 44 degrees. It nearly broke us. We called a crisis meeting. The Mayor at that time was Harold Fredericks. The Northern Star came to the meeting and became a sponsor. Papers at the time were strong and it became the Northern Star North Coast National. We needed to survive and we introduced a lot of new things with their support. We introduced more entertainment, a circus and at that stage circuses had animals. We had an Elephant here and the Elephant got away and ended up over with the cattle. In that 36 years the dairy industry is much smaller here now. After Covid we haven’t had a dairy show but the beef cattle show is very strong. We have about a dozen schools this year bringing cattle.

 

We didn’t have a show for a couple of years due to Covid, then the big 2022 flood. The insurance people came here and said…You won’t have a show in 2022. I said to the committee, we have to have a show or else we lose all our support workers, etc, so that’s when we put a free gate on. The crowd was great and again a big crowd in 2023. The trouble with entertainment it’s all so costly but we have to keep people entertained.

 

The generous support of sponsors has kept us going. Lismore has been through a lot and a lot of our sponsors have been through a lot but they still support us. This show was formed in 1885. If you go out the golf course, you’ll see two streets, Show-view and Parade St. The show was on the golf course and in 1905 it came across here. The reason it moved here was a lot of the cattle came on the train and there was a station here where they could unload. These grounds were used as a loading point for people going off to war and there’s a memorial close by.

This show has been a very important part of Lismore and the Northern Rivers. It’s still evolving. This year we have CosPlay and the pavilion is full totally devoted to the Cosplay, so that will be great to see how people dress up. We have Dirt Girl World and we have the circus back. We have the fishing show, the reptile and animal nursery, we have monster trucks and bikes and the community parade with lanterns.

 

We have for the first time in Australia, the Australian Wood-chop Championship. Three NSW titles and an Australian title. We have all the rides and this year we have the biggest car dealers in Lismore coming with their cars. There’s the dog show and the pet dog show as well, the horse events and all the agriculture. It all comes back to family. Unless you have the whole family supporting you, it wouldn’t work. Rodney is the Chief Steward here of the Beef cattle section. This is all Volunteer, I’m not paid to come here.

 

Another thing introduced since I’ve been here is the Farmer’s Market. It’s going great guns with Marny at the helm. We have up to 2,000 people every Saturday morning. There’s also the Speedway, the go-karts, the Poultry Show, Tropical Fruits. NORPA’s Wildskin is currently showing here.

Just these last few months I had a heart attack. I finished up with four stents. I was at home over at the chook pen. I went to pick a chicken up and had pain across my chest. Ellen drove me to hospital. I’ve had both knees replaced. I can’t keep doing this forever, I’m getting too old. We’ve done a lot of repairs to these old buildings. It’s a very pretty setting but if you were doing it today, you wouldn’t build here on the flat where it floods. The Showgrounds today are becoming one of the focal points of Lismore. You have to keep things interesting. I never intended staying on for 36 years but here I am.