Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the weekend Emmaus College, located in Jimboomba in my electorate, hosted their bi-annual school carnival, complete with camel races. The camel races display quite an entrepreneurial flair, and they have become a huge drawcard for the event. They draw a crowd of around 5,000 people from throughout the electorate who travel to be there. The concept of the camel races is that businessmen buy or sponsor a camel and either ride it themselves or put a jockey on it. I bought a camel, and one of the privileges of buying a camel is that you get to name it. My staff called my camel 'Buchholz's Beast', and it was proudly jockeyed by one of my staffers, Kylie Hart, who came second in her heat. One of the local councillors, Trevina Schwarz, named her camel 'The Schwarzenator'. There were over 50 stalls and the community did a great job putting together the event. All the money raised—it is one of the school's largest fundraisers—goes to purchasing infrastructure for the school as well as new equipment such as laptops and iPads that the kids can use. As I said, it was attended by no less than 5,000 people.

I take the opportunity to congratulate P&F president Raelene Lawler, carnival manager Sarah Hirschy and camel race coordinator Selma Schuller, known as the Camel Queen. I also acknowledge the principal, Kevin Schwede, and his deputy principals Steven Adair and Lisa McCormick.