Be it the annual Church of England Mount Isa Show of the 40s and 50s or the John Campbell Miles Festival of the 70s, Mount Isa loves a Show!

And the Showies, of Side Show Alley, love Mount Isa.

Brothers, Elwyn and Arnold Bell, and their sister, Neeta have been coming to The Isa, “Longer than we can remember,” the men said.

“Our father travelled with his Roy Bell Boxing Tent and we learned very quickly the difference between a jab and an upper cut, as we were expected to hold our own in the ring.”

“But that wasn’t easy when the likes of Bronco Johnson, a local miner, started fighting.”

Settling in for a good yarn down memory lane, the brothers amused with stories of Bronco Johnson’s showmanship to draw the crowds into the boxing tent before left jabbing his opponents out of the tent flap; a win-win for Johnson and Bell Snr.

“You know, The Isa was a tough town in those days, you had men who were cattlemen turned miners and they were pretty damn strong lads to come up against in the boxing ring.”

“Alfie Clay from Cloncurry was another good boxer,” said Elwyn.

And they both remembered setting up their Dad’s Roy Bell Touring Stadium at the Apex Club’s North West Queensland Industrial and Trade Show at Kalkadoon Park in 1962.

That was the granddaddy of all shows, to follow, attracting 19,000 people which was more than the entire population of 12,548 at that time.

It was also the show that honoured John Campbell Miles who, at 79 years of age, asked for his mates and fellow gougers, Con Davidson and Ernie Maggs to help him officially open the Apex Club’s North West Queensland Industrial and Trade Fair, 40 years after he had founded the Mount Isa mineral fields in 1923.

These early gougers were joined by Mrs Glendenning, the first white woman on the mineral leases and Arthur Campbell whose family owned the land on which those mineral deposits were found by John Campbell Miles.

Such was the humbleness of John Campbell Miles that on arrival in Mount Isa for the show he declined accommodation at Casa Grande, preferring to camp in the miners’ quarters.

And being a keen pugilist in his younger years, he is recorded as saying he never missed going to a travelling tent boxing match when they arrived in town.

That same year, Bell’s Touring Stadium also attracted Pat Mackie, who was later to become synonymous with the 1964/65 Mine Shut Out, wrote in his memoirs of wrestling the Bell’s professional wrestler for a convincing win at the first Industrial and Trade Show.

What Roy Bell did not know at that time was that Pat Mackie held several wrestling titles including Amateur welterweight champion of New Zealand at 17 years of age and was a former Canadian middleweight champion.

Over the years, the Bells, brought more mechanical thrills to the show arena and eventually retired Roy’s boxing tent to concentrate on Bell’s Amusements.

The Mount Isa Show was everyone’s time to shine although many a man took home a shiner as a reminder of a losing bout with a Bell boxer.

And just as Side Show Alley has the Bell family, now touring with three generations including Elwyn Jnr, the Mount Isa Agriculture Show (the Buff’s Isa Show) has Caryll Evans and Edna Russell to fly the flag for 36 years of voluntary work.

“My husband was president of the Mount Isa Show for many years and when he retired, I didn’t see any reason not to continue volunteering at the show,” Edna said.

“And I’m still here with Caryll.”

Over the years, the women have seen the show ebb and flow along with the health of Mount Isa Mines and each year they guide yet another new committee along the path to stage a successful event.

“We’re both involved in setting up the pavilion displays during the week but come show days, Edna is in control of the entry gates while I stay in the pavilion and keep an eye the exhibits,” Caryll said.

While they have seen the trend for scrap-booking decline in popularity over the past couple of years, they are thrilled that the photography section has been given a new boost with drone images.

From rock drilling to mechanical shovelling contests, equestrian events to piglet races, stockman’s workouts to bronco branding, cake and biscuit baking to jams and preserves, quilting to handicrafts, there is always something to attract every member of the family.

Sometimes though good planning does come unstuck, like the time the exhibit for the Guess The Weight competition, ended up in its owner’s freezer before the Show.

Or when the computerised fortune telling machine ‘went down’ so many times that the exhibitor resorted to palmistry and the crystal ball method.

But there has never been a need to use the crystal ball when judging the young ladies in the Miss Show Girl each year, as they have always been well versed on the history of the Mount Isa Show.

Some of the lucky young women to wear the title of Mount Isa Show Girl have included Karyn Mcreath in 1985, Mikki Wessels in 1996, Kirsty Jackson (2001), Amanda McPaul (2003), Rosie Griffiths (2005), Sarah Lesko in 2006 and Reegyn McElligott in 2011.

After winning her title in 2015, Kelly Muir, continued to be involved with the Show Society and took on the responsibility of Show Treasurer in 2016.

Be it 1963 at Kalkadoon Park or 2017 at Buchanan Park, the local Show has always been staged by the community, for the enjoyment of the community, putting the word UNITY strongly into COMMUNITY.

It’s SHOW TIME in June.

Researched and written by Kim-Maree Burton.

www.kimmareeburton.com

Photographs courtesy of MIMAG and the North West Star newspaper.

Information sourced from interviews with Elwyn and Arnold Bell.

The history column is a weekly contribution from local Mount Isa resident and historian Kim-Maree Burton in the Saturday edition of The North West Star and can also be accessed online on the The North West Star website, in the community section, at www.northweststar.com.au