June 22, 2021
Jacinta Rockemer and Jasmine Firman will be heading off to the Ekka later this year to represent the South Burnett’s seven agricultural shows.
The pair were sashed 2021’s South Burnett Miss Showgirl and Rural Ambassador on Saturday night.
Jacinta was Goomeri Show’s 2021 Miss Showgirl, while Jasmine was the Nanango Show’s Rural Ambassador.
The awards took place at the annual South Burnett Sub-Chamber Dinner, held at the Wondai Diggers Club.
About 75 guests drawn from local Show Societies enjoyed a two-course buffet while the competition’s eight candidates were introduced by compere Cr Kathy Duff. They were then asked to briefly answer three random questions to test how well they could speak in public.
The dinner capped off a long day of interviews carried out at Cr Duff’s ‘Di Di’ property and nearby Boondooma Homestead.
QCAS judges Adam Tokely, Claire Webster and Myles Newcombe put the eight candidates through their paces during a farm inspection tour and horse riding session at ‘Di Di’, followed by a morning tea.
After this, the three judges conducted in-depth interviews at Boondooma Homestead.
South Burnett Sub-Chamber president Viv White said she had suggested the judging take a different format this year, in a farming environment.
The South Burnett Miss Showgirl title was contested by Kyla Milne (Kingaroy Show), Megan Kingston (Murgon), Bianca King-Kogut (Nanango) and Jacinta Rockemer (Goomeri).
Rural Ambassador candidates were Rosh-Annah De Caluwe (Kingaroy), Marcus Riddell (Murgon), Jasmine Firman (Nanango) and Sean Crump-Murphy (Proston).
Kyla Milne and Marcus Riddell were selected as runners-up in the Miss Showgirl and Rural Ambassador categories, and will step into the roles if the category winners are unable to fulfil their duties.
Another highlight of the evening was the judging of the Dark Rich Fruit Cake competition, which suffered a greatly reduced number of entries this year due to the COVID pandemic.
Under COVID rules introduced for agricultural shows during the past year, all cookery competition entries had to be discarded immediately after judging.
This condition discouraged cooks preparing more expensive entries – such as fruit cakes – from competing.
Judge Phyllis Hopf, from the Goomeri Show Society, said this probably explained why there were only two entries in this year’s Rich Dark Fruit Cake competition, and she regretted she had to disqualify one submission because it was under-sized.
However, the winning entry – from Nanango’s Gloria Fleming – was not only the correct size, but a perfect example of what a dark rich fruit cake should be.
Phyllis congratulated Gloria on her effort and wished her well in this year’s State final.
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