Fencing Central hits the mark

FCANZ

4 days ago

2 min read

The second week of June might feel like a lifetime ago, but when you re writing for a quarterly industry magazine, it was pretty much yesterday.

Fieldays 2026 saw FCANZ return to Mystery Creek with our second Fencing Central site. We were right beside long-time partner Strainrite and across the walkway from Stoney Creek, giving us plenty of passing foot traffic. It s a great spot, and one we re determined to hang on to. A special thanks goes to Harry Brown and Chase Whitelock, two students from Geraldine High School, whose hard work and enthusiasm were a massive help in constructing the Fencing Central site ahead of the event.

Gold Partners Summit, Beattie Insulators, Stockade and Bayonet joined FCANZ and Lean on a Gate on the revamped site. Visitors could check out products, talk directly with suppliers and see some proper fencing in action. Demonstrations from competition fencing legend Shane Bouskill drew a good crowd and gave people the chance to ask practical questions in a relaxed setting.

We asked each partner to include an "activation" - in plain English, something visitors could actually have a go at. Summit did a great job getting people to swing one of its gates, while Stockade's Wayne Hurunui could be relied on to head out into the walkway when things quietened down and encourage passers-by to have a go at the activities and competitions around the site.

The FCANZ team was also flat-out helping people find fencing contractors in their area, talking about membership and signing up new members. One of the most encouraging parts of the week was speaking with several young people who wanted to know how they could get into the industry.

Overall, Fencing Central did what we hoped it would. It raised the profile of the industry, gave our partners a good place to connect with customers and created plenty of opportunities to talk about fencing as a career. The mood at Fieldays felt noticeably more positive this year, and we hope that flows through into more infrastructure work over the next 12 months.

Geraldine PIA students Harry Brown & Chase Whitelock were a fundemental part of the set-up this year
Phil coaching the boys on the level of detail required for a good fence

Written Jaime Bigwood

Published in WIRED issue 82/September 2026 by Fencing Contractors Association NZ

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