Showground Vision Heritage Highlight

During the Royal Sydney in 1933, as the annual Easter Show crowds and exhibitors jostled for space at the Society’s Moore Park showgrounds, the Sydney Mail published its vision of the Show’s 21st century multi-storey future! 

At the time, Australia was going through the ‘Great Depression’ and the Royal Agricultural Society was also being badly buffeted by financial stress.

The previous decade had been a boom time for the RAS, with revenue from all sources peaking in 1928. By the following year though, world prices of practically all agricultural products had begun to decline, and by 1932 Australian farmers were doing it tough.

The Society’s membership was dropping alarmingly along with its other revenue sources, and the Moore Park Showground was in desperate need of some upgrades. As part of the State’s Unemployment Relief stimulus program the NSW Government came to the Society’s aid with a £20,000 loan in 1933 to start on upgrade works.

The Sydney Mail’s utopian vision of a great vertical Showground in the sky might not have been quite achieved – but by the mid-1930s the Moore Park grounds boasted a new Horticultural Hall, new horse boxes, upgraded roads and a new system of underground electrical mains. The 21st century was in its sights!