Bruce Starritt
Councillor, judge and exhibitor - Bruce Starritt has a long connection with the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV), being the third generation in his family to be involved in breeding and showing animals at the Royal Melbourne Show.
Bruce Starritt has a long connection with the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV), being the third generation in his family to be involved in breeding and showing animals at the Royal Melbourne Show. His grandparents started a Border Leicester stud in 1914. Not having any experience in showing sheep, Bruce’s grandfather would come to the Show and study what other people were doing and copy them. As a result, he was very keen to help other breeders. As Bruce remembers, he took to heart the motto of their local agricultural society: Show what you grow, share what you know.
Bruce became involved with the Royal Melbourne Show at just 14 years of age, assisting his grandparents and parents in showing their sheep and cattle. He began judging at agricultural shows with his grandfather when he was 17:
I first judged down here with my grandfather and my grandfather said, ‘You place the animals and I'll front the press,’ so it was actually my decision that day as to which animals went where … From 17, I judged Border Leicesters.
Bruce has been involved in judging ever since, being called on to judge almost every different breed of sheep and cattle. ‘I think it got to the stage’, he laughs, ‘where if a new breed was brought into the country, [the response was] give it to Starritt, he’ll judge it’. As well as judging at the Royal Melbourne Show and across the country, Bruce has also judged internationally.
With such experience in both showing and judging, it was no surprise that Bruce was asked to join the RASV Council. His family had been involved, with his father a past President and his brother a life councillor. After he joined, Bruce remembers one councillor telling him how good it was having young people involved, and Bruce laughed because he was 58 years old!
Looking back on a lifetime of involvement, Bruce believes one of the best changes to happen to the Show has been the increase in professionalism:
I think the competitiveness was good. As one person improved the standard of presentation others had to join … the professionalism that has gone on there now is totally different to what it was 30 years ago, 40 years ago – and for the better.