Tocal Field Days cancelled

The key problem, apart from a heavy rain forecast and an East Coast low is a severely damaged concrete bridge at Mindaribba, on Tocal Road – the main access road to the Field Days. This bridge was damaged by the recent storm event and is unstable.

With further rain and heavy traffic there is a possibility that it could fail completely. This would leave very limited access to the Tocal Campus through secondary country roads and in areas subject flooding.

Heavy rain could quickly cause the Paterson River to rise making Gresford Road to the North and Paterson road to the east unpassable.

"We regret having to cancel the Field Days but it is the only responsible thing to do” Dr Cameron Archer, Field Days Chair and College Principal said.

"We and many others plan all year for the event, we look forward to it and enjoy all aspects of it. The event has tremendous support from the community and rural industry. This year all sites were fully booked up and ready to go.

"Many exhibitors have set up their displays and were looking forward to the event, albeit, a wet one."

Tocal field Days has been running since 1985 and from time to time it has been affected by rain, probabilities indicate that one in ten events are heavily rain affected. But this one has the added effect of the previous rainfall sodden landscape and with the Paterson River at above normal levels.

Tocal Field Days Association and the College work assiduously on safety, we take great care and we take our responsibilities seriously. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made in the interests of eliminating risks completely. We do not believe we can take the risk of running the event given the advice we have had as well as the access problem which is evident when one assesses the condition of the bridge at Mindaribba.

We will be spending our time packing up after this cancelled event and approaching the 2016 event with renewed vigour. We have many committed and supportive exhibitors and community groups who work so hard alongside us and we look forward to working with them for the 2016 Field Days.

I pay tribute to the efforts and contribution of Wendy Franklin, Field Days Manager, and Carol Cairney, Event Services Officer, who work all year just for these three days. They, along with all at Tocal are disappointed that the event has had to be cancelled.