She’s been coming since she was a baby – now she’s Bangalow Show’s Young Woman of the Year

KATE Hulbert was just 11 weeks old when she attended the Bangalow Show for the first time. She won Junior Showgirl at the age of five, and this year, she was named the 2025 Young Woman of the Year.

 

Bangalow Show secretary Anne McClelland said Kate’s late grandmother, Jan Hulbert, had been heavily involved with the Bangalow Show Society and the Park Trust Committee, which runs the showground, for many years.

 

“She would be very happy that Kate is this year’s Young Woman of the Year,” she said.

 

The 20-year-old former Bangalow Public School student is studying secondary teaching at Southern Cross University while working part-time at Bangalow Cellars.

 

“Kate has been participating in the show since very young with entries in the Pavilion, where her Lazy Daisy Cake was a favourite each year, and entering her pets in the pet parade,” McClelland said.

Last year’s Young Woman of the Year winner, Summer Chaseling, went on to compete at the state competition in Sydney.

 

McClelland said this year’s show was a huge success, with events such as a bush poetry competition, gumboot toss contest and the return of the much-loved lawnmower racing wowing the crowd.

 

Only one event — the maiden-novice campdraft — was cancelled on Friday night due to rain.

“We were very lucky that it wasn’t so wet that we had to cancel the campdraft on the Saturday night,” McClelland said.

 

The show also featured showjumping competitions, baby animals, Shorty Brown the Clown, woodworking displays, stunt shows and burger-eating contests.

 

Children emptied their parents’ wallets buying showbags, riding dodgems and competing for soft toys in sideshow alley games, while parents queued for drinks and BBQ food sold by Bangalow Lions Club volunteers.