TRAINING our youths how to manage the chutes, work with cattle or ride a bucking bronco in the rodeo arena may just be the key to curbing youth crime rates in the city while getting more use out of Buchanan Park.
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Mount Isa resident Gunther Denner recently re-ignited the debate over bringing rodeo training to the city after writing a letter to The North West Star.
He made a passionate call to the city's leaders to use our biggest tourism attraction as a way to engage young people again and get our teens off the streets.
Xstrata Mount Isa Rotary Rodeo manager Donna Kuskopf said they'd discussed a similar idea with the Australian Professional Rodeo Association (APRA) for the last 12 months and would love to see it happen.
"It's just an issue of working the logistics and getting the ball in their court," she said.
"We would love and support anyone who wants to try and establish a rodeo school, I think it's a great idea."
Mrs Kuskopf said training centred in the North West would create a foundation to ensure the Isa Rodeo had a long and healthy future.
Brisbane-based group, the Shaftesbury Centre, have created a Rodeo School in the southeast Queensland town of Murgon.
Although much of the complex is still under construction Shaftesbury Centre chief executive officer Kristian Wale said 15 young kids from Murgon and Cherbourg were already making good use out of the outdoor arena.
"Rodeo really suits regional and rural areas to target disenfranchised and disengaged young people," he said.
"It's something they can engage with and can lead onto work opportunities."
While education is at the centre of most existing rodeo schools and training programs, Young People Ahead (YPA) manager Alvin Hava said an agricultural college would be more sustainable for the region.
"It's very warranted but the thing we're mindful of is the sustainability of the program and whether people are able and willing to teach kids and offload some skills to the young people," he said.
"We, the youth sector, have always advocated that rural studies is something we need to embrace and could be a component of the TAFE college here.
"Its needs to be something more than just a rodeo school where kids get really meaningful courses and pathways to employment."
Mr Hava said YPA considered using the old rodeo grounds after the event moved to Buchanan Park a decade ago but safety and legal issues posed too many issues to get anything off the ground.
"I would like to see an agricultural college for our kids and young adults to enter into the pastoral industry," he said.
"They are crying out for young people who want to work in the bush."