Check out the Auction Catalogue

We’ve got some stunning animals for auction this year. Hand picked by Wendy Billington (level one Judge), The twelve animals offered are some of the best that have been made available for auction in Australia in recent years

View the catalogue online here

Meet our MC

Anyone who has been over to the New Zealand National in a year when they have had a professional MC will have seen the difference it can make, particularly for visiting members of the public.
Meet Snowy… (no, not that Snowy)
Jason ‘Snowy’ Carter needs no introduction in South Australia. Snowy is one of the presenters of the morning show on Mix 102.3 and is seen regularly on TV and as an MC at all kinds of high profile events.
What’s not so well known is that Snowy owns and operates the Hahndorf Farm Barn, a popular attraction with local and tourists alike and home to a much loved alpaca called Billie.
We’re pleased to announce that Snowy is going to be the MC for the 2012 National Show and Sale. He’s going to presenting each class, providing continuity announcements and making sure that our sponsors get plenty of exposure.

A Very Spotty National

Something for the increasing number of specialist appaloosa breeders out there.

This year will see the first award of a trophy for best appaloosa huacaya in show (sorry suri breeders, it’s a trial it’s just huacaya this time).

Big thank-you to the showing and judging panel who have allowed this to happen and to Gary and Felicia Sanders at  Popham Alpacas in the UK who are sponsoring the trophy.

Schedule and forms

It’s been a busy weekend with some very late nights but all the schedules and entry forms are now ready and are available on the Sale section of the web site.

What’s new this year?

Well, the Showing and Judging panel have been busy. They had a meeting last weekend and have asked us to include a whole range of new classes – check out the halter and fleece sections. There is some exciting news there for Suri breeders and for those breeding for colour. The only downside is that we will probably be judging most of Sunday morning.

On the admin side, all payments this year will be processed through the office, this means that you can consolidate all payments into one and pay by credit card.

To make the admin a little easier we’ve added a “What paperwork do I need'?” tool to the website

Hopefully this will make life a little easier

Downs and Ups….

What a couple of months! They said that there would be times like these…

First, if you’ve been keeping up with the changes on the website, you’ll have noticed a major change with the Gala Dinner. We’ve lost the Adelaide Oval as our venue. A long story, but the short version is that the venue was double-booked for our Saturday evening and, as the other group booked theirs first, we lost out. The good news is that we seem to have landed on our feet. After a week of looking at alternatives we’ve been able to secure the Adelaide Festival Centre, the jewel in the crown of the Adelaide Riverside Precinct.

We’ve also seen the departure of a key member of the convening team. Chris Pietrazek, the fleece show convenor, has had to stand down for health reasons. I’m sure everyone involved with the show will join us in wishing Chris a speedy recovery. In Chris’s place I’d like to welcome Isi Cameron. Isi is a very experienced member of fleece convening teams and will be a great asset to the show.

Our Art and Photography Judge

We’re pleased to announce that Julie Morris has agreed to judge our art and photography sections.

Julie, who is based in Mount Barker is a very well respected wildlife and animal artist. She has produced works for Qantas, Rolls Royce and DuPont and has been artist-in-residence at Taronga zoo in Sydney.

Read more about Julie and our other judges, as they are announced, on the Judges Page of the National Show and Sale 2012 website.

Tour of the venue

No idea of how good we'll be at keeping up this blog, but the idea is that it will provide a way to keep you up-to date with what's going on in preparation for the show later this year.

To start us off, we had a site meeting at the showground a week ago. As I had my phone in my pocket I took some pictures and some video. As it's only a phone, the quality is not all it could be, but it should be enough to give you some idea of the venue.

So... here we go - our first blog and our first video blog.