Mingenew Midwest Expo board looks to reshape event with sharper community focus

The McIntosh and Son Mingenew Midwest Expo board say they will be working hard in the background to give their event “the best opportunity” to thrive in the future, following the announcement it will not return next year. Organisers took to social media on November 13 to announce the 2025 Expo had been cancelled, citing the need to “ensure its relevance, longevity and success” while also maintaining a “financially viable” event. But they have vowed the much-loved event will return in 2026. Expo vice chair Billi Marshall said the decision came after the recognition the team needed more time to foster a long-term plan for the event moving forward, and to address issues and ideas raised over the years. “Unfortunately, you can’t come up with those sorts of answers overnight,” she said. “So we’ve listened to the feedback and made the decision as a board that we actually need to sit down and do some planning and get some things in place.” Ms Marshall said changes would include finding ways to make the event “more relevant” for the local community. In 2021, the Expo raised $50,000 for disaster relief following cyclone Seroja. Ms Marshal said a return to an event with a “clear direction” such as this would help. “There was a lot of people in our area affected (by the cyclone), and in that year we saw a very prominent turn out, a positive turn out, and we managed to raise a lot of funds,” Ms Marshal said. WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis said she wished the board “all the best” in working with the community and stakeholders. “This is a volunteer-led event, and the board have done a wonderful job putting together this showcase year after year,” she said. Liberal member for Durack Melissa Price said she understood the decision to have a break in 2025 to ensure the event’s continued success. “Our agricultural shows are so much more than a showcase of livestock or produce; they are a staple in our calendars, a cornerstone of our regional identity and a celebration of the agricultural backbone that sustains our nation,” she said. “Events such as the Mingenew Expo are a social lifeline, uniting farmers and communities and boosting tourism and local economies, whilst highlighting the unique culture and resilience of our rural areas.” When asked what some of the biggest challenges were for the Expo in recent years, Ms Marshal said it was the changing face of rural farming communities. “When you look at the number of growers and farm-owners in the Mid West, there’s less and less,” she said. “We’ve got more corporate-owned farms that cover a lot of land, and you don’t get the family farm operations like you used to. “It makes it very hard to get volunteers, and it makes it very hard to get the general public to attend.” Mingenew shire president Gary Cosgrove said the board’s move to cancel the 2025 event was a strategic decision made in the face of broader issues impacting rural WA. “It’s a reflection of the times and the declining population of the rural areas,” he said. “These shows rely on people coming to the events, and people working at these events. The population decline takes away your volunteers available to help ... it’s a broader social issue as anything.” The Midwest Expo’s next annual general meeting will be held in February. “The board will obviously continue to meet until then, and then a new board will be elected as of the AGM,” Ms Marshal said. “The new board will continue to work on developing these plans to pretty much get a better understanding of what we want our event to look like, and how we’ll make that happen.”