Smiling showman who works with both animals and kids
Liv Casben |
There’s a saying in show business: never work with children or animals. But the mastermind behind the farmyard nursery at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show, James Kemp, does both and is remarkably still smiling.
In preparing the attraction’s 700 hand-raised animals to travel from their Queensland home to Sydney Mr Kemp faced a massive task, including making sure there were enough babies.
“A sheep’s got a gestation period of 150 days, we have to introduce them to the boys, so that we’ve got lambs for the show,” he said.
“It’s the same with the pigs, the goats, the chickens, the ducks,” he told AAP from the floor of the animal nursery, crowded with both human and animal kids.
Next on the list was how to get them them the 800-plus kilometres from the scenic rim in Queensland to the show in Homebush in Sydney’s west.
It took a convoy of small trucks and a team of people as well as a couple of flights.
“It’s a big logistical thing,” agricultural educator said, still smiling.
And almost a week after the gates to Australia’s largest agricultural show opened, the animals are still arriving.
“These guys are all hand raised … this is what they do for a living,” Mr Kemp said.
On Tuesday new recruits were flown in.
Born on Monday, freshly-hatched ducklings spent their first days in a plane.
“Because these guys grow so fast … I brought another batch down so they’re nice and cute for the end of the week,” Mr Kemp said.
And the reaction from the public both big and small makes it all worthwhile.
“I just loved the idea that we’re giving people exposure to animals and to farming,” he said.
“You’ll see people a bit apprehensive when they first walk in but give them a couple of minutes in here and they realise the animals aren’t threatening and they’re having a lovely experience.”
AAP
