The dust didn’t stop riders and spectators alike from attending the Walgett Charity Bushman's Carnival on Saturday 19 August, where rodeo and campdraft keeps community groups thriving. 

“We had a great weekend with a lot of competitors,” said carnival president Guy Yeomans. “We had a lot of kilometres in between, from Victoria up as far as Mareeba (QLD) we had competitors turning up.”

The event drew around 350 competitors across the weekend, with 700 runs in the campdraft and former Australian champions competing in every rodeo event.

Around 1000 people turned up to see the show, an improvement on pre-covid numbers for the event.

Attendance was boosted by the semi finals of the Western Plains Rugby Union competition held at the local oval and involving men's and women's teams from Bourke/Brewarrina, Warren, Gulargambone and Coonamble.

With the count still being tallied from the weekend, Mr Yeomans expects that the money raised for local community groups will be promising. 

“We’ll do really well out of it. Last year we gave back about $15,000 and I reckon we’ll do much the same this year.”

The money will be distributed to organisations who helped in the running of the event, from working the gate to manning the sausage sizzle.

Local organisations set to benefit include Walgett Netball, Walgett Swimming Club, Walgett CWA and Walgett Junior Rugby.

“It certainly helps when people come out and support us,” Mr Yeomans said.  

This year marked the first All-Rounder Incentive prize, designed to draw competitors to compete in both rodeo and campdraft events for a $1000 award. 

Making himself at home in the campdraft arena and on a bronc, Rhys Angland took out the prize, scoring 15 allrounder points across four events, taking home one first place, two second places and one fourth place.

Other notable wins include Ben Rossiter on Opera in the Maiden B, Hayley Warden on Starlight in the O’Brien Families Encouragement.

Mr Yeomans attributes a lot of the success of the community event to the sponsors. 

“People supply us with cattle for the campdraft and the rodeo as well, and they cart their own cattle. We really want to thank our sponsors who make it such a great weekend,” he said. 

“All weekend you think ‘I can’t wait for this to be over’ and then you sit down recapping a few things, and you can’t wait to do it all again.”