Northland Field Days patron reflects on event's rain-soaked beginnings

"I just went as a visitor and it was a bit like the weather we had recently; it just rained and rained," Newlove told Rural News.

He recalls the challenging conditions at the Dargaville Racecourse - the venue for the first field days.

There were about 80 exhibitors, and the venue wasn't ready for an influx of people, tractors and machinery.

"I can remember huge tractor wheel marks down the main access, full of water."

Organised by Dargaville Jaycees, the management of field days was handed over to the Northland Field Days committee. In 2006, the committee purchased a 33ha site at the junction of State Highway 14 and Awakino Point East Road, a permanent home for the three-day event.

Newlove says Dargaville Jaycees launched the event, not knowing what to expect.

"They weren't expecting anything great. But it was a success and it's grown from there.

"It's still around 40 years later."

He praised the foresight of Jaycees and the original group of organisers.

Newlove says the Jaycees went to agricultural firms, tractor dealers and ute traders to market the event.

"They said, 'we're going to put this on, will you support us?' And they did."

Another committee member Basil Cole was also at the first field days, as an exhibitor and recalls the weather woes.

"I remember a couple of women walking down the road carrying their high heeled shoes."

Cole. who was then working for Lands and Surveys, had developed a weed wipe system for rush control. A tractor company hosted him on its stall at the inaugural field days.

As the Northland Field Days celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, Cole notes that social media and technology have impacted field days all over the country.

“Social media has hit us hard: a farmer can come and sit down to his coffee with his iPad and buy a brand-new tractor.

“The field day specials aren’t what they used to be. That’s probably one of the big changes over the past 40 years.”

Chalk and Cheese

So how has the Northland Field Days evolved since its humble beginnings at a racecourse 40 years ago?

Northland Field Days committee member Basil Cole says buying a greenfield site was the biggest move.

He describes the two venues as cheese and chalk.

At the racecourse, the field days was a two-day event with many restrictions.

“You couldn’t do so many things,” he says.

“Buying our own greenfield site was the biggest move up. You can see we’ve got the good wide roads, and it’s all set up in blocks.

“The utility services run down the middle.”

He points to the “little green shed” at the field days site – an electricity transformer that powers the three-day event.

“At the racecourse, we had that, but we had to bury it in the centre of the track so that it didn’t obscure the view for the racing punters across the field to the track.

“And when we shifted up here, we got two diggers and dug it out, put it on a transporter, and brought it up here.”

But he points out that the racecourse administrators gave them some leeway.

“They allowed us to bury the transformer as long as it went underground, but I think that was about the only permanent thing we were allowed to do.”