Event co-ordinator Anita Maunder said about 100 people or two busloads spent Saturday morning touring Skinny Lizard Longhorns, run by Geoff Dawson near Emerald Hill.

Another two busloads visited Andrew Watson’s family farm east of Boggabri to learn about the cotton industry.

The day tour numbers were double last year’s take-up and among more than a dozen available at the 2017 campfire, fuelled by strong interest from the non-agricultural sector.

“A lot of people taking the tours are from areas that don’t see a lot of this stuff,” Ms Maunder said. 

“It was their one chance to have a look at what goes on.”

Organisers estimated about 300 caravans rolled through the gates over the weekend and about 800-900 people during its peak on Saturday.

By Monday morning, about 50 guests had already booked their place at the 2019 Drovers’ Campfire after enjoying their visit this year.

Event founder Geoff Eather was seeing off the last of the vans on Monday while doing a little “tidying up”.

He said this year’s campfire was well received, particularly the Saturday night entertainment by Two Gals and country singer Tom Maxwell.

Some inquiry had been made about more shop stalls from outside the area for future campfires. But Mr Eather was reluctant as he didn’t want it to become a “market weekend”.

Ms Maunder held similar sentiments about the size of the event.

“It’s probably at the level where it needs to be,” she said. “We can look after people properly at this number [of visitors].”

However, she encouraged the community to back the event for future years to come.

“The event needs continued local support and it needs the younger people coming through to help out,” she said.

The local rugby league and go-kart clubs were among the many community beneficiaries again this year.