Parked in Parkes

Swift action by the Parkes Agricultural Show Society and the DPI limited the number of horses in the Parkes lockdown to 38. Show Secretary, Kay Bird recalls, “ I had a call from someone at the showgrounds on Saturday (25th August) morning to tell me that the gates has been locked, as six of the horses which arrived at the showgrounds on Friday for the annual agricultural show had come from Centennial Park. None had displayed symptoms at the time of their departure from Sydney.

“We had the DPI there within half a hour, as one of the members of the show committee is a DPI officer. All horses to arrive were turned away.

“All 38 of the horses here have had the flu and none has been very ill and they will be kept here until the end of the month.

“There are 13 trucks here and about 26 people attending to the horses. Families have organised one member to stay and look after the horses and they may change over. There are DPI personnel camped here and 24 hour security. You have to have a good reason to come in to the grounds and to get out you have to go through a thorough washing process.

“The amenities are good at the showgrounds and the DPI have brought in a couple of washing machines. Everyone is getting on and coping pretty well, they don’t have much of an alternative really. There is a cricket ground here and I see they are making good use of that”.

Kay hopes to get Horse Deals some photographs of the Parkes lockdown and the on going Parkes Test Match.