Tassie faces at Sydney's Royal Easter Show

Coal River Farm was among a Tasmanian contingent at the Sydney Royal Easter Show held from April 11-22.

From the cattle judging to quality food to woodchopping, Tasmanians were popping up around the prestigious agricultural show.

“We’ve been doing it for eight years now, and it’s always been a really good way of getting Tassie produce – and our produce – into the Sydney market,” Coal River Farm owner Daniel Leesong said.

“We’ve done 80,000 tasters with nearly a million people through the door.

“There’s a lot of people in Sydney and it’s a privilege to be able to bring our Tassie produce to that market.”

Mr Leesong said the Sydney Royal Easter Show had been a large part of his family.

“Our kids have grown up serving cheese. This year was the first year our youngest – who’s 12 – served.

“It fills me with great pride to have all of them over the years just doing their thing and being part of the family business.”

Coal River Farm distributes its products around Australia.

“We’ve got a number of shops; two in WA, one in Melbourne, and four in Tassie,” Mr Leesong said.

“But then on top of that, we’ve got distribution at about 500 places around Australia.

“A lot of people discover our cheese just by chance in an IGA or a specialty deli, and then they see us at the show and get to meet the maker, which is obviously really rewarding for us because the feedback is always positive.”

Mr Leesong said he would “love” to export more internationally. 

“There’s always logistics challenges around the type of cheeses we do.

“Because we do soft cheeses, the shelf life is shorter than traditional hard cheeses. So, unless you were to air freight it, it doesn’t really work.

“Some of those international links that are being talked about could potentially be really good for us, so we’ll wait and see with that space.

Tasmanian woodchopper Amanda Beams participated in the events at the Easter Show, which are considered the most prestigious in Australia.

She finished fourth in the 300mm Women’s Underhand Handicap and 6th in the Women’s World Championship 275mm Underhand.

Another Tasmanian at the Easter Show was Brenton Heazlewood, who was one of the judges for sheep competitions.

Mr Heazlewood has been judging sheep for more than 50 years, but this was his first time at the Sydney Easter Show.

He said he was impressed with the quality of sheep on display at the event.

“There’s always the odd one that you’re perhaps a little disappointed with, but basically they’re a very good line-up of sheep.

“There were quite a few breeds represented, including some minor breeds.

“Being an exhibitor of a minor breed myself, it’s never easy taking a minor breed to a show because you’re often the only person exhibiting that breed.

“It was good to see some minor breeds there.”