PO Box 1264 Aitkenvale Qld 4814
(AUSTRALIA)Welcome to the North Queensland Cavy Club Inc. website, designed for local cavy fanciers (guinea pig owners) but open to visitors from all around the world, too.
email: nqcc@hotmail.com We're based in Townsville - on the coast of North Queensland, near Australia's Great Barrier Reef. This site contains mostly local information at present - about our Club, show dates, etc. Our Club membership is open to all cavy fanciers, but a newsletter subscription may be more suitable for those who live too far away from Townsville to attend our shows, etc. Our Club newsletter (the Tropicavy) contains cavy-related info' and is available for a $24.00 p.a. subscription within Australia - it comes free as part of the package to all our members, though! Most of the Club's activities revolve around our cavy shows.
The Club holds a few combined pedigree and pet shows a year during the cooler months, as well some "pet-only" shows during the summertime when it's too hot to have heaps of people and animals cooped up for a full-day show. Last year we trialled having our pedigree section in the mornings and pet section in the afternoon, with judging for the pets starting around 1 pm (with registrations being taken earlier than that, from around 12.30). It seemed to work well most days, so shows will continue in the same format for this year, too. The "pet" section has also been subdivided into various "novelty" & "pet" categories this year - novelties include such things as fancy-dressed, cutest pose, owner/cavy look-alike, fastest eater and heaviest pet; the pet categories (where the winners in each one of these gets called back at the end for a final judging so that the major prizes can be awarded) includes things like best single colour, most colourful (2 or more colours), most interesting markings, best baby, best adult boar, best adult sow, best head (large eyes, droopy ears, broad nose), best conditioned, best smooth coat, best rough coat, best crested, best longhair, cleanest, and also a section for the Handlers - Junior Handlers (under 16 years old) and Senior Handlers (over 16 years old). Our full day shows start with the Breeders Exhibit in the morning at 9 am - this section of the show is designed for breeders to showcase pedigreed animals that they have bred in their own registered studs. This is followed by the Breed Classes that are divided into all the different standard pedigree breed varieties. These animals are all judged to a set standard by a qualified Judge, and the Standards book can be accesed on the National Cavy Council website here. Photos of many of these fancy breeds can be seen on the Cavy West website here.
Our shows during recent years have been held on the 4th Sunday of each month at our clubhouse in the cavy pavilion at the Townsville Showgrounds (across the arena from the main grandstand). Cavy shows in the North Queensland region for 2009 have been scheduled for 22 February (our Club show for pets only, to be held at the Weir School, Kirwan) 22 March (our Club show for pedigrees & pets, to be held Weir School), 5 April (Cairns & District Cavy Club show for pedigrees and pets, to be held in Cairns), 26 April (our Club show for pedigrees and pets, to be held at Weir School), 24 May (our Club show for pedigrees and pets, to be held at Weir School again), 28 June (Townsville Ag show for pets and pedigrees, to be held in the cavy pavilion at Townsville showgrounds), 3 July (Herbert River Ag show for pets and pedigrees, to be held at Ingham showgrounds) 16 July (Cairns Ag show for pedigrees and pets atCairns showgrounds) 26 July (Towers Ag show for pets and pedigrees at Charters Towers showground) 23 August (our Club show for pedigrees and pets, to be held at Townsville Showgrounds) 27 September (our Club show for pedigrees and pets, to be held at Townsville Showgrounds) and 25 Octomber (our Club show for pets only, again at Townsville Showgrounds). Specific show info, copies of the show schedule and entry forms, etc. are available by contacting us/ our Show Secretary Janene Guazzo at nqcc@hotmail.com or djguazzo@bigpond.com.
As mentioned above, many of the local Show Societies have a cavy section in their programmes and members of the public are always welcome to enter these, as well as Club members - just contact them for a full cavy section schedule. (You can always ask to go on their mailing list for a show schedule if you are interested in exhibiting at future shows, too.) "On the day" pet entries are usually allowed at all the Ag shows, but pedigree entries always need to be in well beforehand so that they can be catalogued according to their breed/group.
Below are some photos taken at one of our shows a while back, to give you an idea of our usual Club show setup. It looks a bit different now, as we have experimented a bit with the layout and added some extra funtions (eg library and photo/copy area.
Townsville Showgrounds - 23/9/2007 We have a canteen set up in the show venue where drinks and snacks can be obtained throughout the day, and a mini-multi-raffle is also run as a bit of a fundraiser. There is an assortment of Club stock for sale - show gear (carpet squares & boards, as well as grooming mits and shampoo, etc.), general information books, water bottle kits, biros and keyrings, etc. There is also a library of newsletters from other Australian cavy clubs if you want to browse through them. We have chairs and fans provided around the exhibitors' area to provide some comfort for us all, thanks to the fundraising efforts of our members. In hot weather it pays to bring along water for the animals to drink, as well as some high-water-content food (e.g. cucumber) for them to eat. When it's cold, a spare towel/ cloth can come in handy for keeping out the draughts, but most times it seems we're needing to keep them cool here in the tropics!!! Our links page is designed to provide cavy fanciers everywhere with much/ more information about the "big pigture" that's out there. (Please email us if you want specific sites added onto our existing list.) Before you leave here we'd like you to leave a record of your visit in our special website guestbook which we've set up. It's nice to be part of the global cavy fraternity and see how far afield our guests come from. Feel free to make contact with us in person if you are ever visiting sunny North Queensland on holidays...
