Sadly the first day arrived amid a 2 day downpour - they canceled all the evening activities including the dunny-derby and haystack race! So we bailed. But the next day dawned only heavily overcast and we headed over to the showgrounds. There were some typical craft things
(and some very nice woodworking). The grounds were marginally a swamp - watching the riders in the jumping ring was painful as the footing looked horrific. All the horses seemed to fare well while we were there, but it seemed to our inexperienced 
eyes a pretty big risk to the animals (hey - the riders had helmets and don't get shot for broken bones!)
There were numerous eateries with a wide variety of fried-things-on-a-stick. I am afraid Dave and Callie's tour-de-SE fried grease stores had nothing on this place!
By far and away, the highlight was the State of Origin wood chopping contest. These guys are rather amazing - short axes you could probably shave with but they all stand around - very close by, as their mates chop big logs in half in more ways that you can image (vertical logs, between their feet, topping a post 20' off the ground after notching it for your standing plank. In the midst of it all - it started to rain. So now they have wet axe handles!
One of their best competitors was "just coming back from a serious injury".
Wonder how that could happen - go figure!
[Well I can't get my own little video to upload - go check out the 2 links below to see wood chopping competitors in action!
(if you want to see more of this sport look at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBkTQ2Mthj0
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_HO0F2toE
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