Bush meet goes flash

Race carnival has its roots in Far North’s wild times

THE roots of the Far North’s most iconic racing carnival are steeped in the traditions of outback cattlemen and fears Cairns was becoming irrelevant.

These days the Cairns Amateurs Carnival – “the Melbourne Cup of the north” – is a flashy and star-studded event embraced by the city’s elite.

It has come a long way from the wild times when stockmen and bush horses pounded the dusty Cannon Park track to bridge the divide between city and country.

Chief executive Graham Thornton said the carnival was originally designed to preserve the relevance of Cairns as agriculture thrived on the Atherton Tablelands.

“When the Hann Highway was going in out west, they were scared Cairns would become obsolete,” he said.

“The main districts and certainly the foodbowl was up on the Tablelands so they thought Cairns really had no relevance back then so they wanted to create this carnival that was very similar to Oak Park Picnic Races.

“It was amateur jockeys and bush horses back then – it was all a bit of fun.”

The Far North Queensland Amateur Turf Club Inc started in 1959 when the late Sir Sydney Williams OBE and Les Gallagher pushed for a coastal version of the historical Oak Park races.

Outback graziers and Cairns businessmen bumped heads to organise the first ever Cairns Amateurs Carnival on September 18 and 19 that year.

Jockeys were mostly ringers and cattle station workers, while horses were more suited to mustering than racing.

But this tradition was scrapped in mid-1990s due to strict regulations, however, history is retained through the carnival’s name.

Vice-president Ross Moller has been involved in organising the event for the past 20 years and first attended in 1981.

He said the event was “different”.

“It was more bushy. It didn’t have the sophistication it has got now,” he said.

“There was only two or three good jockeys so they could be on a hack horse and win.”