Last-minute deal saves Canberra Show rides - but anger remains

"I spoke with the president of the Showmen's Guild of Australasia, Aaron Pink, at 11.04am this morning," Adelina La Vita, the chief executive of the Royal National Capital Agricultural Society, told The Canberra Times.

"During that conversation, I accepted his offer and we reached an agreement."

But members of the Showmen's Guild of Australasia (which represents the vast majority of providers of on-field rides and side-shows) were unhappy about the way negotiations had been handled.

"They've come around to the offer that we put," one showman close to the negotiations said.

Elwin Bell, who is on the committee of the Showmen's Guild, said, "The show society forgets that we are the biggest part of the show."

"They should be happy to learn from us. We are the professionals," he said.

He said an offer was put to the Canberra Show organisers last year but it had taken until the week before the show for an offer to be accepted. He said initially the Canberra Show organisers had come back with a higher offer, which the guild had rejected.

Either way, Mr Bell and the other showmen will now be trucking their rides and stalls to the Canberra Show at Exhibition Park.

Another owner of rides said the Canberra Show was initially asking a "ridiculous" sum for them to turn up with their entertainment at the Exhibition Park event.

"We are meant to drive in on Sunday," the stall holder said.

The ferris wheels, bungee trampolines and the rest are a major attraction for the Royal Canberra Show.

The Canberra Show has been promoting them strongly: "There's lots of fun to be had in Sideshow Alley!

"There are action packed rides scary enough to have your hair standing on end through to sedate teacups for the littlies. And what's a show without a Dagwood Dog!"

The Royal National Capital Agricultural Society committee finally agreed a deal at a meeting on Wednesday morning.

It is reckoned that there are 35 major rides (like the ferris wheel) and another 30 or 40 less dramatic ones aimed at younger children, plus a hundred or so side-shows like clowns or throwing balls at targets.

In recent years, attendance numbers at the Canberra Show have gone up.

Last year, the then chief executive of the Royal National Capital Agricultural Society, Geoff Cannock, said the three-day show had had more than 90,000 visitors.

"I'm not sure that it's a record. But it's certainly the highest crowd in 10 years," he said.

But shows like the one in Canberra have had to reinvent themselves since the days when agriculture was at the centre of an area's economy. The same is true of the Canberra Show as Canberra has turned from the Bush Capital into a major city.

In recent years, it's true that townspeople have gone to see the animals and the agricultural competition, but also to ride the rides.