Moranbah Rodeo (not the best photo, but it got dark just after this)

On the night we got back from our adventures in Mackay it was the Moranbah Rodeo! We hadn’t been to a rodeo before so we decided to just go for a couple of hours as Andy was at work early the next day. There had been events on all afternoon and they go on until late night. They provide free buses to ferry people to and from the event to allow everyone to drink which I thought was good.

When we got there I was amazed at how many people were there, all with camping chairs, blankets and cowboy hats on! The heat was incredible; it had hit 39 degrees during the day and was still 36 when we got there at 6pm. It was also very dusty due to there being no rain for months, so you had to concentrate on not sweating too much! A grass hill surrounded the rodeo ring so you could sit there and watch the events. We saw the junior bull riding which consisted of some teenager being tossed about like a rag doll on the back of a very determined bull, if they lasted 8 seconds they got to the next round. We also saw some events where the competitors came out on horse back and had to lasso the bull as it raced away.

It was good entertainment, watching other people being ungracefully chucked to the ground! There were proper cowboys there rounding up the stray bulls, with chaps, hats, boots and even chequered shirts on! I have never seen so many cowboy hats in one place; you could even buy them there! Apparently, there is a rodeo somewhere every week and a lot of the competitors just travel from one place to the next to compete.