In those times Blacktown was an area of market gardens, poultry and beef, wine, and known as the breadbasket of Sydney. Agricultural shows were very important events, showcasing an area’s produce and community spirit.
A typical Blacktown Show in those days included preserves, needlework, dogs, pigeons, poultry, caged birds, vegetables, fruit, fine arts, schoolwork, honey, flowers, trotting, wood chipping, side shows, rides, catering, horses and cattle, all ending with the Grand Parade. Sometimes there were also greasy pig catching.
Every year a Show Ball was held in the Blacktown School of Arts.
The humble little Testa Pavilion, also known as the Rotary Pavilion, was built by Aventino Testa in 1948, an Italian immigrant who lived in Third Avenue and had his own winery there.
He built the pavilion by hand, mostly by himself, using concrete blocks made in Lithgow and rendering them with bull ant nest gravel to give it the coarse exterior appearance it has today, making it quite unique.
He also built the Hicks Memorial Gates, which still stand near Richmond Road and were the original entrance to the Showground. Aventino was a bricklayer and could often be seen pedaling his bricks around Blacktown on his bicycle.
Hard working contributor
The Hicks Memorial Gates were built in 1940 as a tribute to the long serving president of the Agricultural Society, Joseph Hicks, who had passed away in 1939. Joseph’s wife,
Ethel, also a hard-working contributor to the Society and the Show, was given life membership.
(This writer has submitted an application to Council to have both protected on the Blacktown Local Environment Plan, as they are the oldest remaining structures in the Showground precinct.)
The plant nursery sits on land owned by Council. It was originally owned by a German, Dr W A Westrum, who left Australia during World War 1 to help his motherland but never returned.
His land was then seized as he was declared an enemy alien by the Commonwealth Government. The land was later sold to Council, which uses it as a plant nursery.
The gatekeeper’s cottage, previously known as Smith’s Cottage, was brought from a site in Campbell Street, said to be in the late 1950s when Bowman Hall was built there. In recent years it has been completely altered, although the timber frame was retained.
The original poultry pavilion was burnt down in 1949 and replaced by the building on the site today. For several years it bore a sign Blue Chequers, but the sign had come from an old dance hall in Marcel Crescent and gave the wrong impression that the hall had come from there also.
Over the years Blacktown City Council has added to the site, although the Showground ring remains Crown Land. The six Arts and Crafts huts were former military buildings, acquired by Council from the army camp at Wallgrove, and shifted to the Showground in 1976. They were then refurbished and allocated to local community groups, which still occupy them today.
The Imperial Club, also known as the Band Hall, was built in 1969 and used also as a function room. It was located just off Richmond Road, where the car park is today. Many Blacktown people would remember attending weddings in the hall, which was demolished in 2015.
In November 1986 Pope John Paul II flew into the Showground by helicopter to visit the EPT site at Seven Hills. A memorial garden was built, just off Richmond Road, known as
The Pope’s Garden, in memorial. Unfortunately, the plaque installed their names the wrong Pope, IE, Pope John II, as having visited the Showground.
First COVID testing station
Not much is known about the totem poles erected outside the huts. They were built in 1980, of clay taken from the PGH quarry, which is today the site of the suburb of Woodcroft.
Nobody would want to remember the Covid-19 testing station, which was added in late 2020 when the epidemic was raging and removed a few years later.
So many wonderful and community minded people have helped to make the Showground over the years, too many to name here, but Joseph and Ethel Hicks, Aventino Testa, Arthur Francis, Beryl and David Luck, Bernie Gallen and Jim Simpson worked tirelessly to make it what it is today.
The Showground and Francis Park have a significant cultural and social history that spans almost 200 years between them. In that history is a microcosm of the growth and development of Blacktown itself. Its childhood associations are an important part of our cultural memories.
Apart from sporting activities and agricultural shows, both the showground and park have both been used by local communities and will continue to do so in the future. Australians, British, European, Indian, New Zealand, Indigenous, all have been brought together in this place by the one sense of community and culture.
It is truly a multicultural place, a place of peace and tranquillity, and a place of shared community spirit and pride.
Footnote: The more detailed history of Francis Park and Blacktown Showground, researched by Lyn and Les Tod, can be read on-line on Blacktown Memories website.
