Red dirt race
How a coastal gal got hooked on camels
YOU can hear the fondness, the connection in her voice as she speaks of the quirky camels that have come to shape her youth.
Kyrraley Woodhouse came into camel racing and riding by chance: a young, state-ranked pony club showrider from Cessnock in the Hunter Valley, she was asked to help out with an exhibition race at Castle Hill by friends operating camel rides at Birubi Beach, north of Newcastle.
That led to her first competitive race at the Marree in a northeastern South Australia race event, which includes the Australian Camel Cup.
“They were a week out from coming on the camel racing circuit, they needed another jockey, and I was well, ‘I’ll come if you like’. And I met Tom in Marree,” Kyrraley said.
Tom Woodhouse is a Boulia camel trainer and handler, who has been working with the animals since childhood alongside his father Gary.
Finding that common bond with camels, Kyrraley, now in her early 20s found her home in the Outback, marrying Tom, and sharing in the work of the family business, Woodhouse Camels.
Woodhouse Camels offers camel riding and wagon tours around Boulia’s Burke River area, and at special events like the upcoming Big Red Bash Festival in Birdsville.
The quiet of the trail ride ratchets up a gear when the camel racing season kicks in across western Queensland and Marree, in northeastern South Australia each July.
It’s a crazy sport that draws crowds of thousands. And at the heart of it, one of nature’s oddly stately creatures, possessing their own independent spirit – the racing camel.
“They’ve got to be a little bit mad, just like the jockeys that decide they want to ride them!” Kyrraley said.
She said the camels used for rides were perfectly suited to the task.
“They are normally pretty good, but still not really quiet,” she said.
“It’s good for the racing camels: all of our rides camels are ex-racing camels, so they’re used to the crowds.
“All the work that gets done on them to be racing camels makes them really good quiet rides camels, a bit like a retired racehorse makes a good show horse. They’re used to all the atmosphere. Not much phases them.”
While the racers get an extra protein boost for energy and stamina around race season with some additional grain fodder, the animals are fairly easy care, a non-fussy browser full of that desert resourcefulness, eating galvanised and goats head burrs, prickly trees, spinifex and other grasses.
The Woodhouse family runs around 30 camels, at different
stages of training and activity. Come race season, the racing camels in the herd come in for some big events.
The sport comes with that make-do spirit that defines life out in rural remote Australia.
Kyrraley said if there isn’t a regular rider available, one is found readily enough.
“If we need other jockeys we’ll try to find them. There are enough jockeys on the circuit that we can share around a bit,” she said.
“If not, there’s a lot of station people that can ride horses, bulls and stuff. They have normally got enough balance that they can hang on enough, they are usually able to ride the camels.”
Kyrraley said her best win had been the Winton Cup in 2014, but she hoped one day to claim the Boulia Cup.
“The Boulia Cup is the biggest deal, because it’s over 1500m, so that’s a long race,” she said.
“It’s really trying on the jockeys and the camels. You’ve got to be very fit for that one.
“The best I’ve come in that is a third.
“It’s always fun, but you can’t really walk straight after it.”
Whether she wins or not, Kyrraley said it is a sport she loves.
“It’s quite an adrenalin rush, it’s really good fun. They are smoother when they gallop than a horse, but it is a bit of a harder ride because they have such a big gait.”
Kyrraley’s favourite camel is an aging gent named Mario.
“Mario’s been racing for over 10 years. He’s also one of our rides camels and wagon camels. He’s very multi-purpose,” she said.
“I love him. He’s a big puppy dog, he’s just a big sook.
“Come race day he still
sometimes wants to be a bit grumpy, but it’s race day, and he knows his job. You can take him out the next day and put him in rides and he’s just fine.
“He’s close to between 15 and 18 years old. So 10 years racing is quite a long time, especially to be still pulling in ribbons, too.
“He still comes third and stuff, no longer wins. He’s won the Marree Cup, won a few second places in the Boulia Cup – not with me on him unfortunately.
“He’s probably getting a little slow now, but I haven’t got another favourite yet, so he stays it for now.”