Richmond Field Days thrive despite Telstra outage

More than 110 exhibitors, offering a broad range of agricultural supplies, bulls, fashions, and lifestyle products and services were on display across two days last Friday, at the Richmond Racecourse.

Despite the success of the event, organisers of the Richmond Field Days and Races have criticised Telstra for it's poor 4G coverage over the weekend.

Turf Club president Nick Buick said there was a complete failure of the Telstra coverage in Richmond for the second time in two weeks at the event.

"On Friday morning of the event, the whole data side of our Telstra tower crashed and we had no ability to make phone calls and zero data or internet," Mr Buick said.

"We had 110 exhibitors with no Eftpos, who spent thousands of dollars to sell their product and couldn't actually sell anything.

"That was the biggest issue we had and it obviously wasn't caused by us, but it was a disgrace.

"We're in a town with a population of 700 people and maybe at best we had over 2000 attend the event.

"We should have a phone service that can handle a small town having a small influx in its population, due to a local event that's happening in every small town in western Queensland."

Mr Buick said some exhibitors who had Star Link helped other stall holders in providing network to them.

"Luckily, like how most small towns work, we had everyone chip in, and three or four exhibitors that had bought their own Star Link, so they were able to assist in network activity," he said.

"We also had Will Harrington from Wi Sky, our local ISP (broadband provider) in Richmond jump straight into action and devoted his entire staff and team on that day to set up three portable Wi Sky towers around the grounds, so by lunchtime, we had enough of a solution for everyone to do business."

In a statement from Telstra, the network provider said there was no failure with the operation of the local tower, but that there was simply too many people trying to access it at once.

"Demand on the Telstra network in Richmond increased by more than 300pc during this time," the statement read.

"Telstra is happy to meet with event organisers and discuss possible solutions for next year's event."

As the field days don't charge an entry fee, exact numbers through the gate are difficult to say, but organisers believe at least 2000 people attended the event.

"It's very hard for us to judge numbers because we don't charge an entry fee, people just come and go as they please," Mr Buick said.

"We certainly saw over 600 people at the races over the weekend."

This year's field days celebrated 39 years and Mr Buick said it was an incredible achievement for all volunteers who run the event each year.

"That's incredible to me, a local event in a town size and 100 per cent volunteer run," he said.

"To be still going after 39 years and still changing with the times and coming up with new things to put in there, it's quite an achievement nice to everyone that's been involved with it over that 39 years.

"We're already talking about next year's big 40th field days. We'll have a bit of a debrief from this year's field days and start making notes for next year's event."

The Richmond Agents All Breeds Bull Sale was another star attraction, drawing in a large crowd of commercial producers across the north west.

Several sale records were broken at the seventh annual bull, where an Ultrablack bull offered by first time vendors topped the sale at $17,000.

This year's attendees also had a look into the 3-year DIT AGTech research project (funded by MLA and Advancing QLD), which looked at methane reduction through uDOSE Technology.

Researchers presented methane inhibitors, which are supplemented through the water to increase beef industry sustainability.

Phase four of the research is currently in progress at the DIT AgTech research site at Wilburra Downs, near Richmond.

Other events included the Kids Hobby Horse Races and highly contested Mower Race.

After the races concluded on Saturday, the Ringers Rally also took place.

A new addition to this year's field days was a whip-cracking competition, which was run by Andy Gray, who makes his own whips, which were used in the competition.

The winner was determined by who can crack the whip the loudest and Mr Gray had a decibel reader to measure the whip cracks.