Thirty-three camels entered the races with tourists from Las Vegas and New Zealand believed to have been on track to watch the action.

Event committee president Julie Woodhouse said about 1500 people  walked through the gate at the weekend, an increase on last year. 

In previous years, some racegoers left several hours before the main event but  crowd numbers remained high for this year’s big race. 

 “Sunday was the biggest Sunday crowd we’ve seen for many, many years,” Mrs Woodhouse said. 

“They stayed — it was the way to go.” 

There were rumours that attendance was poor this year. 

But the crowds were more spread out and attendees were visiting Boulia as well, Mrs Woodhouse said. 

Organisers were concerned on  Sunday when there were unofficial reports the town’s caravan park’s electrical grid was overloading. 

If it overloaded the Boulia Cup would not have had power. 

Mrs Woodhouse said Ergon Energy resolved the issue before power was cut. 

“We would have been in a big mess,” she said. 

The popular Camel Tag was no longer featured at the event, because of the drought and safety concerns. 

“With the drought on, younger camels were harder to source for the tagging and worries about the public safety were also a priority,” Mrs Woodhouse said. 

The event was replaced with barrel racing, which looks to be a new favourite in the years to come. Jockeys had difficulty steering their beasts of burden around the barrels.

Several times many of the frustrated camels gave up and sat on the ground while still on the clock. They hissed at their jockeys who attempted to get them going, much to the amusement of attendees. 

A grey nomad from Melbourne was overheard remarking that she thought barrel racing was something entirely different. 

“I was picturing a camel having to get into a barrel, or a camel wheeling a barrel along,” she said. 

Jo Stuart, from Byron Bay, said she enjoyed the camel racing. 

“I love the way they just do their own thing.” 

In one of the first heats of the races, one of the camels Mrs Stuart was backing gave up and sat on the ground. 

“I didn’t believe it,” Mrs Stuart said. 

“It got up and finished the race, it was hilarious.”