We are in the middle of the busiest time of year in the Great North West and that means clocking up the kilometres to cover the action.
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The Great Western Games was formally closed on Sunday after a few big weekends of action in 32 sports across the region.
Meanwhile the equestrian season kicked on with the Saxby RoundUp this weekend.
I travelled up to Saxby on Friday and I was glad I had instructions from the McKinlay Shire Council (which we posted on our website) as the instructions from Google Maps were well wrong.
While Mr Google was suggesting you could get there via Nelia or Richmond, that would have got people well lost and I apologise to anyone who read my story about the RoundUp in the half hour or so before the council quickly put me right.
The correct way was via the Wills Development Rd and the Millungera/Taldora Road, neither of which I’d travelled before, five hours from Mount Isa with the last 80km on dirt.
It’s so remote that you start worrying in the final few kilometres that you may have missed your turn and there is no chance of anyone idly popping by to put you right.
But then you see the quaint entry sign to Saxby and in the middle of nowhere there are hundreds of people milling around camping, tending horses or watching the action in the arena.
The place seemed inviting for a weekend stay but unfortunately I had head tail back to Mount Isa on the same day with a busy weekend ahead.
As for me, I was back on the road on Saturday to cover Rockhana in Cloncurry before returning to Isa to catch the Town v Curry game at the footy. All part of covering our wonderful patch.
However on that note, people ask why we don’t cover such-and-such events, well, there are currently three journalists at the Star (myself included) and given the state of the industry that number is not likely to increase any time soon.
We only usually have one rostered on of a weekend so even clocking up the miles it is impossible to cover everything in person – however we’ll happily give coverage to events if people send in information and photos – that’s the reality of country town media in the 21st century. Derek Barry