The golden age of droving may be over, but the memory remains strong at Camooweal each fourth weekend of August.
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The 21st Camooweal Drovers Festival was celebrated with a street parade and concert on Friday before the action moved to the Drovers Camp on Saturday and the races later that day.
Some 38 old drovers were invited to the lunch at the Hotel on Friday lunchtime and a day later their names were read out as they were introduced to the big crowd at the camp before a 21st birthday cake was cut.
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Drovers Festival – Friday
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Four of the drovers were called out to cut the cake, all celebrating significant birthdays themselves, an “OBN” (Over Bloody Ninety) Owen Alloway and three “OBEs” (Over Bloody Eighty) Wally Sanderson, Brian Thompson and Jeff Hill.
Drovers Festival Tony Anderson welcomed the crowd to the Camp and introduced Mayor Joyce McCulloch to officially open the Festival.
Cr McCulloch praised Mr Anderson, the committee and volunteers as well as Ellen and Paul Finlay who live on the grounds for putting on a great festival.
“It’s very important for Mount Isa City Council to support this event every year because Camooweal is a part of the Mount Isa City Council but before that it was a big part of Australia especially for the bush,” Cr McCulloch said.
“The best part of this event is that it gives people the chance to come back and see mates they haven’t see for a long time.”
That thought was echoed by drover Jeff Simpson who was chatting to three drover mates from Clermont one of whom had not seen the other since 1958.
“The rest of it doesn’t matter,” Mr Simpson said pointing to the stage and the festival grounds.
“This is what matters, chatting with old mates.”
But there was plenty to do for non-drovers too with bronco branding, concerts on stage and the museum open all day.
The Friday night was buzzing too with the annual parade followed by all the fun and mayhem of the Mailman race as the highway was closed for a few hours.
The team from Rocklands won the Mailman and donated their $1000 prize to the Flying Doctors. The charity auction that followed raised almost $5000 for the festival.