RODEO READY
Riders saddle up for country’s most famous rodeo
IT’S the biggest event on the rodeo calendar and Kate Christensen can’t wait.
The annual Warwick Rodeo and Campdraft has been in her blood since she was a kid, desperately waiting to turn seven so she could sign up as a volunteer in the back yard.
But it wasn’t just family bias that made her talk up the annual event.
“The rodeo is the national finals for the Australian Professional Rodeo Association, so that’s the top 15 cowboys and cowgirls competing in the eight events over four rounds,” she said.
“It’s action-packed from 5am Monday through to close on Sunday.
“There’s pretty much something on in the ring all the time.”
The campdraft was also pretty well known thanks to it having the richest prize money in the country.
“Basically it’s the two biggest country horse sports joined in one location.”
She said planning started on this year’s event literally days after last year’s wrapped, when organisers met to discuss what worked and what didn’t to incorporate it
into the following year’s planning.
All the hard work paid off, with 30,000 people swarming through the gates last year and even more expected this year.
Incredibly, most of that work was carried out by volunteers.
Ms Christensen said there were four to five paid positions and everything else was done by about 350 volunteers.
There were a few reasons
the event continued to grow each year.
Word of mouth was an obvious one, but the other was the family oriented nature of the event.
Ms Christensen said it wasn’t unusual for families to have multiple generations at a time on deck and each passing year brought fresh crops of youngsters to join the family tradition.
Competitors invariably came with a family entourage
supporting them as well.
At the age of 33, Ms Christensen could proudly say she had done her bit to keep the event going for 26 years and said it wasn’t as unusual as it sounded.
She said organisers were desperately on the hunt for more volunteers to man the canteen and bar facilities, whether they could manage a few hours, or a few hours a day.
Every bit helped and meant existing volunteers wouldn’t be tied up working throughout the entire week.
Shifts usually lasted three to four hours on a rostered basis and came with a pass to get into the rodeo.
Contact the Warwick Show and Rodeo Society office on 4661 9060.
The event will run from Monday until Sunday.
For more coverage on this year’s Warwick Rodeo and Campdraft head to page 9.