The showmen (and women) travel around the country most of the year, bringing rides, showbags, hot dogs and sideshow games to communities like Griffith, Leeton and Wagga.

Rodney Thompson helped Denny Fachin organise the Griffith Spring Fair as it helped “keep the circuit” for the other members of the Showmen’s Guild.

“My family has been doing showbags for 40 years and we’ve been coming to Griffith since I was born,” Mr Thompson said.

“We spend about 11 months of the year on the road, travelling from Cairns to Darwin to Melbourne and everywhere in between. We do about 150 events each year.”

The showmen keep an annual circuit arranged with various show societies around the country. Holding the Spring Fair meant there was a place for them to earn an income between the Wagga and Leeton shows.

“Normally we go from Wagga to Griffith to Leeton and then I head to Victoria after that,” Mr Thompson said.

“There’s usually two or three circuits going at once, there’s so much equipment out there.”

It wasn’t only adults on the show circuit, they also bring their children along. The National School for Travelling Show Children has three separate classes around Australia and has students from kindergarten through to year 12. The school works in collaboration with Dubbo Distance Education.

“There’s about 50 kids enrolled in our mobile show school,” Mr Thompson said.

“They’re in Wagga at the moment and the school works around the shows.

“Everyone will be travelling to Leeton on Monday so they’ll do classes Tuesday to Saturday this week.”

Whether learning in their portable classroom, travelling from town to town, or helping their parents set up carnivals, it's clear these kids live anything but boring lives.

“My daughter is seven and has swum in the Great Barrier Reef twice,” Mr Thompson said.

“I know people I went to high school with in Wagga who have never even been to Sydney.”