By Colin MacGillivray

Ararat Show Society is calling for public support to help ensure the event’s future, with the organisation facing a $15,000 shortfall in the wake of last month’s show.

Inclement weather, including storms and partial flooding, saw the last-minute cancellation of many of the October 26 show’s major attractions, including most rides and a planned horse show.

The Ararat Show Society committee decided to offer patrons free entry in light of the cancelled attractions.

Secretary Donna Dunmore said the resultant financial losses had left the society facing an uphill battle in order to run a show in 2026.

“We lost about $15,000 on show day because we ended up throwing the gates open for free,” she said.

“Every year we use the previous year’s gate money to run the show, and because we’ve got no gate money this year, we’ve got no money for the show next year.”

Ararat Show Society launched a fundraising page on website GoFundMe, which as of yesterday had raised $1600. 

Ms Dunmore praised the generosity of the Ararat community but said the society was still seeking extra money.

In addition to public donations, Ms Dunmore said the group was exploring grant opportunities and hoped for State Government or council support.

“Member for Ripon Martha Haylett is trying to help us out. We sent all the info about our expenses to her and she’s sent it on to the powers that be to try to get us some money for next year,” she said.

“If she’s able to get some money it would be awesome, but it’s just a matter of waiting and seeing really.

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“We have applied for some grants through the council, but we don’t know whether they will come to the party and help us out outside of grants.”

Ms Dunmore said the society had been unable to avoid its show-day losses.

“If it had been the previous Sunday or the following Sunday, we would have had absolutely perfect weather,” she said.

“But we can’t set the dates. The dates are set by Victorian Agricultural Shows.

“Unfortunately there are back-to-back shows pretty much every week in this area, so there’s not much we can do about changing the date or postponing.

“It’s devastating to work for 12 months and have one day ruin the whole thing.”

Ms Dunmore said the society had cancelled its show in 2022 due to flooding, but had been able to avoid severe financial losses that year because it made the decision to cancel early.

“We got flooded out the year after COVID – we had one of our buildings completely flooded the week before the show, so we saved ourselves a lot of money by cancelling the show a week early,” she said.

“But that wasn’t an option this year. There were forecasts for rain, but we weren’t in a position to take that option of cancelling the show because we didn’t know how bad it would be.

“There have been times when there’s a storm forecasted and it hits Stawell and not us. You just never know.”

Ms Dunmore said the show society had arranged to run an upcoming Ararat trash and treasure market and was hoping to stage its horse show in January as ways of generating extra income.

But she said public donations were still welcome.

“There were quite a few people who contacted me and said they paid what they would normally have paid at the gate if they’d come.

“It doesn’t matter how much people donate. If everyone in town gave us $10 we’d have plenty of money. That’s really all it takes. Every little bit helps.”

People can donate to Ararat Show Society’s GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/f/2026-ararat-show.

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