The Mount Isa Rodeo hosted a distinguished American diplomat this year but one that most attendees would have walked past without knowing who she was.
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Valerie Fowler was here in her official capacity of US consul-general for New South Wales and Queensland and in her first visit to Mount Isa had more than a passing interest in the rodeo.
“You have a great rodeo here in Mount Isa and my home state, Oregon, has the Pendleton Round Up,” Ms Fowler said.
“We have an affinity for legendary horsemanship we share.”
Ever the diplomat, Ms Fowler would not say which rodeo was better but said she was having a great time on her first visit to Mount Isa.
“I’m a firm believer you can’t understand a place just by visiting the big cities,” she said.
“I’m really impressed by the $4.5 million the (Isa) Rodeo has put back into the community, and it’s a charity event and the fact it has contributed to the community over 59 years is remarkable.”
Ms Fowler said her role was to support US interests in NSW and Queensland and to look for enhanced collaboration and cooperation with Australia.
“That’s true in the economic sphere where the US is Australia’s largest strategic economic partner due to our direct investment and capital flows in the 1100 US companies working in the country, with 335,000 Australian employees,” she said.
“It’s also true in the academic sphere with Australians studying in the US, and the collaboration between Australian universities and US companies in science and technology.”
Ms Fowler said she been in the US foreign service for almost three decades and had been in her current role for almost a year.
My husband and I were serving in Singapore and we came down (to Australia) on vacation and that was the only time I had been to Australia (before),” she said.
But any worries looking after NSW and Queensland (or as we preferred, Queensland and NSW) might not be the right job, were quickly put to rest.
“It’s the best job in our foreign service,” she said.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
