Gina Ryan

It could be argued that Gina Ryan wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV). The showgrounds were where her parents met for the first time during World War II.

Mum was working on the canteen at the showgrounds … helping feed the soldiers … and then Dad actually left from the showgrounds to go to the war. He was actually stationed here before he left to go to the war.

Gina came to the Royal Melbourne Show as a young girl and later as an exhibitor with her husband Mel.

We used to have cattle every year here and loved every minute of it. Never had a bad day at the Show. Best part of our lives, some of the best part of our life. It was wonderful, really wonderful.

As well as showing animals, Gina assisted with monitoring the care and condition of cattle, being in charge of the cattle shed. As she remembers:

You have to make sure that the cattle are tied up properly, that they’ve been fed and watered, the beds are cleaned out, mucked out before the Show opens, that someone’s in attendance there with them. Some of the new people that haven’t shown before, you might see they haven’t got neck collars on or the cattle are tied too short or too long or they’re getting over the top of one another and they’re all tangled up and things like that.

Gina’s life-long connection with the Show has left her with many happy memories. One of the things she remembers most is ‘always learning’. She took her love of learning and passed that on to the next generation when she volunteered to teach at the handlers’ camp at the Show. This camp encouraged children with little experience with animals to learn how to handle, care and show them. Gina remembers:

It was children from all walks of life mixing with [other] children from all walks of life and that’s wonderful, I love to see that.

Gina was involved with the handlers’ camp as a volunteer for 13 years.

In 2001 Gina was awarded the President’s Medal in recognition of her work as a Simmental breeder, hack rider and the first female harness rider at the Royal Melbourne Show. It was an unexpected honour.