Wendy, an architect, is the daughter of former Winton olive growers and farmers David and Carolyn Evans, who are retired and live in Gerringong.

Wendy and her architect husband Craig, from Sydney, have notched up 23 consecutive shows, designing the exhibits for the region Wendy once called home.

“I spirited her away from Tamworth to the city, but every year it’s always a bit of a homecoming creating this exhibit – it’s the reason we come back year after year,” Craig said.

“We meet up with friends, share a yarn or two over a glass of wine or beer ... and the installation of thousands of apples, pumpkins, oranges, wool bales, wheat sheafs ... you name it.”

Getting into the specifics of the award-winning exhibit, there are 5000 or more apples, close to 1000 oranges, numerous cattle pumpkins weighing 150kg or more, and 100kg of canola – and that’s hardly scratching the surface.

“It’s quite amazing the amount of produce that goes into these displays,” Craig said.

“They’re the biggest agricultural display of their type in the world.”

This year’s theme, “One farmer”, had its beginnings at the conclusion of the 2011 Sydney Royal Easter Show, when Craig and Wendy sat down with Australian Year of the Farmer managing director Geoff Bell.

“We talked about what inspired him, what inspired farmers and what inspired children, so we could begin to craft the message to get into this year’s show,” Craig said.

“Out of that came the realisation that city children had a general lack of appreciation for farmers and farming, along with a lack of understanding of the rural lifestyle.

“They didn’t realise farmers had access to the internet and mobile phones, and they still saw the farmer as an old bloke in a flannelette shirt in a rusty old shed.

“With this year’s exhibit, we’ve shown that people in farming can be as tech-savvy as any other industry.”

The giant 2.4m-high letters spelling out “One farmer” was deliberately non-gender specific.

“If we put up an image we would stereotype farming, and we didn’t want to do that,” Craig said.

“A farmer isn’t an old man, woman, or a young person; it can be anyone.

“Then we set out to surround that ‘One farmer’ (sign) with the bounty of produce from the region.” At least 30 to 40 people assisted with the installation of the exhibit.

By the time you take in all of the people out in the regions sourcing produce over the past few months and then bringing it to Sydney, that number blows out to more than 100.

“It’s a huge team effort. We can come into the showgrounds two weeks before, but the preparation begins 12 months in advance,” Craig said.

“From about October/November we’re hard at it, and then the 16-to-18-hour days kick in. But the result – to deliver first prize for the district – makes the hard slog well worth it.”