By Jenel Hunt
For a while it was a case of baa, humbug towards the person who took Lambert, the winner of the Ingenious Sheep Section at the Stanthorpe Show.
Now, although it could be argued that lambs don’t usually have happy endings (think lamb roast, lamb cutlets, lamb shanks), Lamby – as he was almost immediately nicknamed – is the luckiest lambikin who never lived.
You see, as if winning his competition wasn’t enough, Lambert had an Adventure. With a capital A.
It’s a bit reminiscent of the story of the gnome that was stolen from someone’s front yard. Every few weeks the owners would receive a postcard from somewhere in Australia from their missing gnome. The cards were posted from towns big and small and read, “Wish you were here,” or “Having a wonderful time,” or “My favourite national park so far.” He was eventually returned to his home yard – safe, sound … and very well travelled.
Lamby’s adventure was only for a few hours on show day, but he was sorely missed while he was away. And there wasn’t time for the postcards to start arriving.
Original mastermind and organiser of the competition Annie Mitchell took to Stanthorpe on Facebook to try to get whoever had stolen Lamby to round him up and give him back. His creator, a school child, was very upset, she wrote. Wanted posters appeared around the show, too. All stops were pulled out to put an end to the dastardly duffing.
Perhaps her plea did the trick, for Lambert mysteriously turned up at the show office. No one will ever know how wild and woolly a day he had, but all’s well that ends well.
And it truly is the end. Annie started the competition during the height of the drought to keep people’s spirits up, involve children and help bolster the sheep show despite reduced entries. But at the show it was announced that this was its last year. Well, until the next drought, anyway.
