Ivan Heazlewood AM
Sheep exhibitor & judge - Ivan Clifford Heazlewood came from generations of sheep farmers in Tasmania. Growing up, he knew being on the farm was all he wanted to do.
Ivan Clifford Heazlewood came from generations of sheep farmers in Tasmania. Growing up, he knew being on the farm was all he wanted to do. ‘I had no doubt whatsoever’, he reflects, laughing, ‘since my first consciousness’.
When I went to state school I just loved to finish lessons and ride my bike the mile and a half back to the homestead and hop on my pony and ride around with the animals.
Agricultural shows were a part of life for Ivan and his family. He recalls rushing out of school when the Launceston Show came around and helping his father with his show sheep. He remembers the Launceston Show as an important event in the agricultural calendar. ‘Agricultural shows were strongly within ordinary famers’ focus in those days’, recalls Ivan.
One of the great satisfactions that I’ve got is the memories of how it broadened my orbit of acquaintances and the wonderful happy memories I’ve got of fellow exhibitors.
Ivan became a regular exhibitor at the Royal Melbourne Show in the 1950s and 1960s. Compared with the local shows he was used to, the Royal Melbourne Show was on another level.
Well the competition was bigger. The whole atmosphere was not overwhelming in a sense, but the scale of the thing was so big, you came up against the top performers in Australia.
A champion breeder, Ivan won a number of prizes over the years for his sheep and was able to profit from his success at agricultural shows. As well as exhibiting, Ivan went on to become one of the top sheep judges in Australia, judging national and international competitions. His passion for sheep continued into his retirement. While he was still active on the farm in his later years, before his death in 2015, Ivan spent time researching and writing around the topics of the history of sheep and breeding in Tasmania.
Ivan saw the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria and agricultural shows in general as having made a great positive impact on the agricultural industry. He described the community as ‘a great fraternity’. This close-knit, familiar community was ‘a very potent factor in the enjoyment of agriculture shows’.