I was at an event in Mount Isa on Saturday night when someone asked me how was I enjoying living in this part of the world.
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I replied that in winter especially, when the weather is lovely and there is so much going on. where else in the world would you want to be.
This was another such weekend, the highlight being the Camooweal Drovers Festival.
I went there last year for the street parade but I had to leave early as I had an engagement early Saturday morning in Mount Isa, forcing me into that dangerous drive along the highway after dark.
This year I stayed overnight so I had the chance to enjoy the Mailman race, though I needed Ellen Finlay from the Drovers Camp to explain the rules to me.
There are horses involved but that’s the only thing it has in common with Mount Isa’s Mailman race in Rodeo Week.
In Camooweal’s version a team run down the street with a horse in a trap, stopping to pick up a mail sack, picking up a passenger at the roadhouse, having a beer (or soft drink for the younger ones) at the pub before finally finding the old drover who has the station name you have to deliver the sack to.
It was chaotic but a lot of fun and it was followed by a charity auction that raised $5000 for the festival and a concert outside the pub.
After a chilly night in the swag, the action moved to the Drovers Camp on Saturday.
I attended a moving service for an old South Australian drover whose family thought Camooweal was the perfect place to scatter his ashes.
Then I watched a few hours of bronco branding.
No doubt the animal lib whingers would love to ban this sport, but no animals are harmed in this fine demonstration of the old ways of branding and the skill of the cowboys in roping and branding was demonstrable.
Later at the official opening, the names of the 38 old drovers who attended were read out and applauded as they came forward.
As someone said on the weekend, it is important these old fellas write down their stories. They are disappearing fast and they hold a crucial part of Australia’s pastoral history – Derek Barry