Machinery
18 February, 2025
A look back at some of the key moments of the Wimmera Machinery Field Days
Wimmera Machinery Field Days is Victoria's longest running event.
What started out with about 3000 attendees and 80 exhibitors now calls itself Victoria's longest-running field days and Australia's premier broad acre and machinery-focused event.
The inaugural Wimmera Machinery Field Days stemmed from a group of regional farms and agricultural enthusiast visiting a field days in Orange, NSW, in 1962.
A year later, they decided to emulate the event, fast-forward several decades, the Wimmera Events Centre in Longerenong is preparing to host the 61st edition of its own field days.
After visiting the Orange event, the president Frank Tucker and secretary Bert Perry organised the first local event in five weeks.
By the fifth event in 1967 the attendance had grown to an estimated 30,000 people.
Then leader of the federal opposition Gough Whitlam opened the 1971 field days as the region saw a boom in farming from the mid 1970's.
This was shown in 1979 as more than $15 million was displayed.
The trend continued into the 1980's as the site was booked out a month before the 1984 field days.
After drought affected the attendance in the early 1990's, before much needed rain and an uptake in business caused organisers to extend the display area due to a record number of exhibitors.
In 1997, field days president Robert Ruwoldt told ABC radio the event was worth $15 million to the national economy
As field days welcomed the new millennium a new audience got to witness what was on offer as live web broadcasts were streamed worldwide.
In 2002, field days celebrated its 40th annual event as 30,000 people streamed through the gates.
Hot and windy weather affected multiple events through the 2000's before organisers were met with flooding before the 2011 edition.
Twenty-three millimeters of rain fell the day before the event, as volunteers spent hours pumping water away in order for the event to start.
Before the Wimmera Machinery Field Days celebrated its 50th event in 2012.
As the 60th anniversary approached, no one would have guessed how the early 2020's turned out.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2021 and 2022 events, in what was a blow to the region.
Then field days manager Murray Wilson summed up how the region would miss out from a financial perspective.
Up to $50 million dollars in trade happens over three days," he said.
"The field days injects several million dollars into the regional economy each year. There will be hundreds of local businesses who in 2021 will not be able to receive much-needed revenue from the staging of the field days."
This also had a large impact on the hotels, motels and food establishments that relied on the income from that time of year.
However, the field days bounced back in a big way in 2023, before warm weather greeted the 60th event in 2024.