Geoff Bammann has spent five decades helping grow the event that helped put his town on the map
This week, as the Eyre Peninsula Field Days celebrates its 50th anniversary, there’ll be one volunteer who can say he’s been there since day one.
Not just as a keen farmer taking in the exhibits, but as one of the locals who’s helped make every single event happen.
At 80 years young – or as he prefers to call it, having earned his “OBE”… Over Bloody Eighty – Cleve farmer Geoff Bammann is still part of the committee that helped build one of South Australia’s biggest agricultural events.
That’s five decades of committee meetings, volunteer hours, planning sessions and field days.
It all began after a handful of Cleve locals travelled to Orange, New South Wales, in 1974 to check out Australia’s National Field Days. Inspired by what they saw, they came home determined to create something similar on Eyre Peninsula.
The inaugural Eyre Peninsula Field Days were held in 1976 on Sims Farm, attracting more than 8,500 people across two days, including one very “dirty day” weather-wise.
“It was quite amazing,” Geoff recalled.
“The event was officially opened by Doug Anthony, who was the leader of the National Party. The Prime Minister was away on holidays at the time so Doug Anthony was actually the acting Prime Minister.”
“After that we decided official openings were too much work and involved too many people,” Geoff laughed. “So we never had an opening ceremony again.”
The crowds came anyway.
One transportable home exhibitor reportedly secured three deposits during the first field days, while another walked away with 126 “definite” enquiries – proof the concept had struck a chord. And caterers went through 620 dozen pastries, 400 kilograms of saveloys and 850 loaves of bread – a good sign that there was plenty of money to be made for the community through feeding the crowd.
Five Decades of Change
Geoff has watched plenty change over the past 50 years, especially in the farming technology on display each year.
A passionate advocate for no-till farming, he made the switch on his own property in 1997 before removing livestock two years later, becoming part of the movement that helped reshape modern broadacre farming.
He believes the field days have played an equally important role in shaping Cleve. They’ve created valuable fundraising opportunities for local sporting clubs and community groups, attracted visitors from across the country and even helped pave the way for Cleve being named South Australia’s Agricultural Town of the Year in 2019.
Still Part of the Team
Still serving on the Field Days committee as what he describes as “a bit of a dog’s body”, Geoff also keeps a close eye on the family farm. He’s handed the hard yakka over to his son and grandson, but he’s still crunching the numbers, doing the bookwork and the delegating!. And just quietly… he’s pretty happy with the way this season is shaping up.
And as for retirement, he’s heading straight to the place he loves the most – after all, he reckons Cleve is “the centre of the universe”.
