Sandra Gardiner was named jerky-making champion at the Royal Hotel Sofala's Australia Day celebration

The fourth annual jerky making competition had over 70 entries between the five categories of beef, lamb, goat, kangaroo and other, with the winner of each category receiving a trophy and prize money.

But there could only be one grand champion.

After taking out third place in the kangaroo category and having the winning lamb jerky, Sandra Gardiner was crowned the overall winner.

Ms Gardiner spent her Australia day working the bar at the Royal Hotel Sofala, helping to quench the thirst of passionate patrons, when she was greeted with the unexpected news.

"I was working behind the bar so I didn't even know at the time, but everyone was running up to me going, 'Champion, champion!' so that was really good," she said.

Despite taking out the title, Ms Gardiner said that there was no specific recipe or process that she followed, and that she just threw some ingredients together and hoped for the best.

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"All my entries were just, put in a bit of that and a bit of this," she said.

Spending the day serving schooners to Sofala guests, meant there was little time for celebrations on what was the busiest day in the hotel's history.

"I couldn't go off my head too much because I was working behind the bar," Ms Gardiner said.

"And the bar was just packed. It was just constant."

After calculating the total intake for the day, it was confirmed that this years Australia Day celebrations were the biggest in the hotel's history, surpassing even the pub's 160^th anniversary.

The feedback from the celebration was entirely positive.

"So many people were just saying, 'What a great day," Ms Gardiner said.

This is something that Ms Gardiner attributed to the friendly and welcoming atmosphere at the hotel.

"Everyone enjoys a big, busy day out there because we don't get that all that much," she said.

"There's never, ever any trouble out there and I think that's why people enjoy it more because they know that there's no trouble."

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