From its small beginnings, the flower section of the Village Fair (previously known as the Spring Fair), has grown in leaps and bounds to become a focal point for the many visitors who flock to the mountain on the third Sunday of September each year.

The Fair’s Flower Show has become well known amongst horticulturalists and gardening clubs up and down the coast for the creative flair which brings together wildflowers and exotics in a uniquely holistic artwork.

The early shows were crafted by well known local Norm Hollis and Comboyne’s ikebana specialist, Jim Duffy.

Norm describes how Jim Duffy volunteered to help at the eleventh hour of the 1991 Spring Fair, forming a creative partnership that ensued for several years.

With his background in the Japanese ikebana style, Jim taught Norm that simplicity speaks volumes and nature has done the work for us - ‘we just have to respect it, take it and present it’.

The flower show has varied its themes over the years, with last year’s group taking the International Year of Astronomy as a springboard for its floor display of a large telescope in the middle of a wheel of the four seasons. The stage housed the sun and the nine major planets as proportionally sized flower balls in the colours we associate with them.

To find out more about the activities at the 2010 ‘Village Fair’ at Comboyne, visit the newly upgraded website www.comboynevillagefair.com