TWENTY years on from its first camel race, the tiny town of Boulia in Outback Queensland, with a population of just 230 people, is seeing more locals drawn to the business of camel racing, including partners, Dannileah Stewart and Ronnie Callope.
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A strong field of locally trained camels will be at the starting gates on the third weekend in July, when Boulia’s four camel training teams mount up for the iconic Boulia Camel Races.
As Boulia’s new entrants to the camel training scene, Dannileah and Ronnie bring more chances for the home-ground field to take home the Boulia Cup. Recalling her first encounter with camels only 7 years ago, Danni admits she and her partner were horse people and thought that the camels were like ‘left over pieces that God threw together’.
Now trying their hand at camel training, the excitement and preparations are growing for the duo, three months out from their hometown Boulia Camel Races.
“We’ve been putting them on grain and feeds and hay, we’ve had no rain, there’s little grass and we’ve been constantly feeding them. But at the moment they are getting on that green grass from the recent rain and they are starting to fill out really good,” Dannileah said.
Providing the camel’s condition is right, Dannileah and Ronnie will race camels ‘Spike’, ‘Marley’ and ‘Wason’, with Dannileah’s brother Bruce joining in on the family sport as jockey.
The last local to take out Boulia’s prized Camel Cup was second generation camel trainer, Tom Woodhouse with camel ‘Uncle Bob’ in 2014.
Dannileah said she was not expecting much being their first year, and usually took years to get a good one.
While she’d love to see another local winner, Dannileah admits that South Australian trained camel ‘The Rock’, will be an interesting one to watch.
Danni and Ronnie said when starting out they very quickly became besotted with the Woodhouse family.
“It was a couple of months before the (Boulia) camel races and Julie Woodhouse asked if I knew how to horse ride, because Garry Woodhouse was looking for a couple of camel jockeys. She said if you know how to ride a horse, that’s all you need is your balance.
“So that afternoon Garry had them saddled up. I thought it was a joke because I was looking for the full saddle like a horse, and there isn’t one with camels. I thought we were just going on a steady ride to get a feel for it, but after a minute we were going for it and I have never looked back since.”
Dannileah and Ronnie’s spare time was spent jockeying for the Woodhouses and their excitement for the sport grew when they placed second and third in the Boulia Cup a few years ago.
