Tony Morris has spent more than half a century shaping the Royal Canberra Show from the inside. From junior programmes to jams and preserves, his contribution spans more than 50 years of unbroken service, recognised in 2026 with the award of an OAM.

His involvement began in 1968, when he and his wife Margaret were approached by a show committee member about the rural youth group the couple had been running in Hall. The society wanted to know if the kids would like to be involved at some capacity in the show, and the idea blossomed into an annual show camp, hosting around 30 young people each year who would spend the days of the show learning, helping, and competing. The society gave the group a site in the horticultural pavilion, where Tony and Margaret would set up a themed display each year – agricultural equipment of the early days, or the story of how food reaches the table – that served as a meeting point for the kids throughout the show. Tony also established a junior stewards programme, training young people to work alongside section heads, primarily in the animal nursery. It was an idea the breed associations later took up and expanded in their own right.

When that program wound down after about 15 years, Tony turned his attention to jams and preserves – a section he and Margaret have run together ever since. The section had originally sat within the cakes area but had outgrown it, and Tony and Margaret were well placed to give it the dedicated attention it needed. What began as a modest collection of entries has grown steadily over the decades, but as Tony notes, it is always influenced by the season. A drought year can actually produce more entries, as people find themselves with more time on their hands and more incentive to make the most of what they have. The most recent show recorded the highest number of individual entries in the section’s history. Tony attributes that growth simply to time and persistence, and to years of quiet encouragement offered to anyone passing through.

For Tony, the greatest aspect of the show has always been the people. The friendships built across more than five decades in the show network are, in his view, worth more than any ribbon – and nothing has given him greater satisfaction than watching young people he once mentored grow into leaders in their own right.