A fifth generation carnival worker, Mr Brophy grew up among rides, attractions and showbags.

“I was around back in the day when we had the old tent shows, the boxing tents and things like that,” he said.

Now with a family of his own, Mr Brophy explained the logistics of life on the road with children.

“There’s all different families here. It’s like a small travelling community,” he said.

“We own the fun house, another guy owns two rides down the end and we all live in caravans and travel around with our kids.”

Once they’re old enough, children in the community begin to attend show school – run out of two semi-trailers that fold out as classrooms.

“It’s through correspondence. It’s a lot like farmers out of the community, where the school is sent to us,” Mr Brophy said.

“We have a school that travels around as well with a teacher who is funded by the government.

“The teachers that travel with us live in caravans as well.”

The family has only a few weeks’ break a year. The rest of the time they spent travelling anywhere from Guyra to Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. 

“It has its ups and downs like every business but it’s a different lifestyle going to different towns and meeting new people every week,” Mr Brophy said. 

“We’re used to it though. I’ve been doing it since I was a little kid so it’s just been in our blood.”

Most of the rides at a showground are purchased from Europe and carnival workers will travel overseas to learn how to build and run the rides.

“Growing up at a show, your parents do teach you a lot of things, but when someone buys a ride they usually buy them over in Europe – they’ll learn how to set them up and run them before they bring them out here,” Mr Brophy said. 

Mr Brophy has been running rides at the Guyra Show for the last four years.

“It’s great, I love coming to Guyra, doing a bit of yabbying and fishing,” he said.