The 133rd Omeo Show the highest show in Victoria – “went terrifically” on Saturday according to show secretary, Leigh Fulton.

It was the fourth consecutive year of the charity wool bale, where wool-growers who enter fleeces for judging at the show donate them to aid the Latrobe Valley Base Helimed1 Auxiliary, and was “bigger and better than ever.”

“Last year we had 60-odd fleece donated, this year it was 81,” Mr Fulton said.

“The amount that gets raised won’t be know until the wool auctions in January, so it depends on wool prices and he generosity of the buyers at the time of the auction.

“It’ s the second biggest wool shearing event in Vitoria after Bendigo – a lot of people don’t realise that.

“Mal Nicholls, from Elders, who really knows his wool, says the wool that comes from this region is amongst the very best – it’s a special thing.

“Having even more fleece donated for the charity wool bale, they said with a lot of squashing, pushing and shoving they would make it into two bales, but it was getting close to having to go to the third bale.”

Despite no hosting team penning events this year, Mr Fulton said show numbers were similar to 2017.

“It was a very good atmosphere again,” Mr Fulton said.

“I think everyone had a good time, the kids had a good time. There was a treasure hunt for the kids which got them to work their way around the showgrounds so they sort of saw a bit of everything instead of just jumping up and down on the bouncy castles.

“There was a high proportion of locals, there were people from all through Gippsland, the whipcrackers, most of the entrants there were not from the Omeo region so much.

“The shearers came from all over the place, including New South Wales as well as Victoria.”

Mr Fulton said the range of events and activities, including whipcracking, woodchopping and yard dog trials, allowed young and old to indulge as they pleased.

“We had lots of interesting horse events and due to the advertising of the Advertiser of our photography competition we had a very high standard and good quantity of entries.

“The photos being developed at the Advertiser, and not all photos were, but it created a Bairnsdale depot and certainly helped make it bigger and better. The judge said every year the quality improves.

“Last year we a had a young fellow who won the photography competition and had a photo that went all the way to the Melbourne Show, so we dobbed him in as our show photographer this year.

“He’s 12 years old and he wandered around and took photos from his age group’s angle and I’ve had a quick look and there are some terrific photos.”

“Despite the season we had quite a few good flowers in the flower show.

“We had a fantastic aerial display by the air force with the PC9 doing all sorts of loops.”

PICTURED: Veteran woodchopper, Red Mitchell, competed in the 250 standing block event of the highly successful 133rd Omeo Show on Saturday. The action packed High Country show attracted a strong crowd and produced its best charity wool bale to date with 81 fleeces donated.