Bunjil, Western Australia: Skimpies at farming machinery sale spark outrage

A Western Australian couple have come under fire after hiring two scantily clad waitresses to help sell their second-hand farm equipment, but the couple insist it was just an attempt to ‘have a bit of fun’.

Wade and Lisa Anderson hosted a machinery auction in Bunjil, in the state’s midwest, on Thursday, with agricultural supplies reseller Nutrien Ag Solutions helping to coordinate the sale.

But the couple were criticized when two women were caught wearing cowboy hats, boots, jeans and white vests as they stood next to their tractor for sale.

In a now-deleted social media post, farmer Debbie Gillam in attendance criticized the move and questioned why the couple thought hiring the young women was necessary.

‘Stunned. Sad. The couple felt aprons were needed at the sale,” Mrs Gillam wrote.

‘Is this how some people see the role of women in agriculture?

‘Why did Nutrien allow it to continue? Both the male and female farmers organized this – why?

‘They had young daughters at the auction themselves. I felt sad for them and their future.”

Speaking to 6PR Radio on Monday, Mr Anderson said the hired skimpies were neither “flirty” nor “exposed”, and that the couple were simply trying to liven up the event.

“They’re not the most exciting things to sell, tractors and… truck trailers, so I was just trying to have a little fun,” he said.

“They weren’t flirty or exposed, not even a little bit.”

Ms Anderson said they were just ‘trying to do something different’ and had no intention of offending anyone.

“There were actually a lot of women at that sale who were probably wearing less than those girls,” she said.

‘I made it clear to Wade that if we were going to do it, I wanted it to be tasteful and that we certainly didn’t want to offend anyone. We tried to do something different.

‘We have had a bad harvest and it has been dry and hot. It was just something different we wanted to try.”

She also confirmed that the two women remained fully clothed throughout the auction and said that, to the couple’s knowledge, Mrs Gillam was the only farmer of the 300 attendees who was unhappy with their presence.

Despite the backlash, Anderson said the auction went “really well.”