The late Doris Burnage, one of the foundation members of the Burmese Cat Society, shares her memories of the first Burmese Cat Society of Australasia Show.
"The first show held by the Burmese Cat Society was an All Breeds Show and as far as I remember it was the only All Breeds we ever had. It was not considered viable then to have Burmese cats only, for the first show. Burmese were just beginning to be the popular breed that they are now, of course there were not enough of them and they were all brown.
The show was held in the Lane Cove Town Hall. We had two interstate judges, Beryl and Clyde Chandler from Victoria, along with several NSW judges, myself included. It was considered a great success although there were some clashes between the Victorians and us. We were supposed to judge to NSW standards but Beryl and Clyde were insistent they knew best and wanted point judging (which was not really point judging at all).
As their judging proceeded they would write on their slips how many points out of 100 each cat was worth in their opinion. This made the specials judging somewhat awkward. Another problem occurred with the litter judging, Clyde was taking the babies out of their cage to the other end of the hall when "our rules" stated they were to be judged at their cage. This did not go unnoticed by the exhibitors and I was the unlucky one to be told to quickly tell Clyde to judge them at their cage. It almost caused a riot!!! Our visiting judges were not going to be told by NSW what to do.
I must say that I never had any problems in Victoria from anyone. I enjoyed my many visits judging there and had many friends among the Victorian breeders and judges of Burmese. It was after one of these judging assignments that I was taken to see the strange coloured kittens in a litter - they were blue. From then on our shows had blues, quite an explosion of them.
After this first show the RASCC (now the NSWCFA) made a ruling that breed clubs should not have All Breed shows. We Burmese people had no need to worry about that, the breed had become so popular and was becoming more so as time went on. Our shows became popular events and thanks to the work of Melvie McGarry and the shows held at the Glebe Police Boy's Club (Melvie was Show Manager) we have grown to be what we are today.
The first show was the forerunner to many great Burmese shows and it has more prestige than many other shows on our calendar. This first show was run by so many devoted admirers of these lovely little cats who are no longer with us and their care and work should not be forgotten. As the shows grow bigger, and perhaps better, let us never forget them."
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