merbein school students, jen woods, rosemary cambridge, joan storer, margaret bannister, shirley bland, evonne lockwood, dawn stubbs, nola worthington, judith holcombe, ruth walker, evelyn gainsberg, gwen mann, merbein cliffs

SHOW GIRL COMPETITION by Margaret Joy Harding (nee Joy Chapman.) In 1965 Eltham was more like a country town than the suburb it has become today. People knew each other, if not personally then certainly of the family name. The big event for the year was a Gymkhana or show at Lower Eltham Park. I can remember marching as a teenager from the town centre to the park in the marching girls with the decorated floats. In 1965, just on a whim on the day, I decided to enter the Miss Eltham Show Girl which was a part of the festivities at the park. I seem to remember that the show mainly consisted of horse events, cattle judging and dog show. As I had not given any serious thought to entering the competition, I wore a suit that I had for work which was brown wool, with a coffee coloured shirt under, black shoes, bag, and gloves but no hat. I duly paraded for the judges and much to my surprise I was announced the winner. I eventually went on to compete at the Miss Victoria Show Girl competition which was held at the Royal Melbourne Show. There I met many country girls who were representing their rural Victoria home. I made it into a final round of judging but I think justice prevailed when someone from a country background was crowned. It was fun to go into the show as I had not really been before and to see the displays of handcraft, cooking and wood chopping events was great as well as the judging of farm animals interesting.Digital file only - Newsclipping on loan for scanning by EDHSeltham lower park, joy chapman, lyons garage, margaret harding, miss eltham 1965, miss victoria show girl, show girl competition

7126-1: Lelie Bennett, Mayoress Anne gardiner. 7126-1A: Betty rouch, Jen Coote. 7126-1B: John & Mrs Grey. 7126-1C: Sandra Horne, Jeane Skurrie. 7126-1D: June Radford, Jeanne Skurrie. 7126-1E: Shane Wegener, COral Eagles, Tracy Wegener, 7126-1F: Rae Smith,. 7126-1G: Sandra Horne & Daughter, Jen Radford (Back). 7126-1H: Shane wegener, Gail Wood (Libraian) 7126-1I: Don Gardiner, Elenor Musumeci. 7126-1J Beryle Cox, Rae Smith looking at the Slorach Family Tree. 7126-1K: Beryl Cox, Doug Hately (President), Rae Smith.43 Colour Photographs. Showing various peole at the 10 year celebrations.biarri