Selwyn and Val and their three children Murray, Penni and Kim have taken out the prestigious 2012 award for outstanding contribution to the country show movement in New South Wales.

It is the first time in the society’s history the award has gone to a family, as it has historically honoured individuals.

It recognises the lifetime commitment of all five members of the local family, which has now been deeply involved in the show movement in the Wallamba area for four generations. A fifth generation - Selwyn and Val’s grandsons - are now beginning to enter local shows.

Selwyn and his siblings had excellent role models in their own parents, Wattie and Melvie Weller, and before them, their grandparents, Arthur and Alice Everingham, all of whom were life members of the Wallamba Show Society.

Selwyn attended his first show (around 60 years ago) as a baby in a pram in the show office at Nabiac, where his father was the hardworking secretary. His mother was meanwhile working just as tirelessly in the luncheon room - a job she enjoyed for over 60 years.

Melvie also found time to exhibit in the order of 100 different show classes each year, from cooking, jams, preserves and condiments to cut flowers, pot plants, hanging baskets, vegetables and sewing.

She and her sister Una Priestley from Taree Estate also made jams for the much-awarded Central Exhibit at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney for more than 40 years.

Selwyn joined a Rural Youth club in his early teens and when Rural Youth exhibits were added to the Nabiac Show schedule, he and his sister Alexa began entering their vegetables, fruit, arranged flowers, jams, preserves, pot plants and hanging baskets.

It was through Rural Youth that Selwyn met his wife, Valerie Murray from Mount George - a member of another well known local agricultural family, whose parents Trevor and Nellie were members of Wingham Show Society.

When Selwyn and Val married in 1974, Val began helping with his show work.

Selwyn joined the Wallamba show committee at the age of 16 and has now been attending the Royal Easter Show for 47 years.He began by helping to groom and show Jersey cattle, then in 1977 moved to beef cattle.

At first showing their own cattle, he moved on to show animals brought to them by clients to be groomed then prepared for their annual appearances at the Royal.

Murray, Penni and Kim took to helping groom and lead the cattle in show rings at a very early age, and exhibited in school as well as open classes. All three joined the Hereford Youth Club and competed in State finals for junior judging and parading with the Agricultural Societies Council of NSW.

Penni and Kim have both won the State beef cattle judging competition, and both have won open parades in Sydney.

Murray has won reserve champion for his dairy cattle at the Easter Show, and all three have won trips to New Zealand. All judge at their local shows when asked.

Kim has been teaching primary industry and agriculture at Yenko Agricultural High School for three years and is beef show stock co-ordinator, which entitles her to accompany students to shows where they exhibit their steers.

Penni is married to Michael Sloman and lives on a sheep property at Glen Innes, where both serve on the show committee.

Penni is vice president of the women’s committee and is a keen exhibitor in cake cooking sections. Their two sons have already begun to exhibit at the local show, at just seven and five years of age.

Penni and Michael met at the Royal Easter Show, as did Murray and his wife Jodie. Murray worked on farms for many years and prepared and showed cattle for his employers. Whenever possible he takes part in woodchopping classes at local shows.

The Weller family has given opportunities to other local youth to learn and help with the preparation of cattle, and to travel with them to local shows as well as to Sydney and Brisbane, to show and parade.

Selwyn is a member of the Taree Show Society where he is chief beef cattle steward.

He also represents Taree at Zone 2 meetings and is Zone 2 representative at Agricultural Society Council meetings in Sydney.