Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Mount Isa rodeo is in very serious trouble. I have absolutely no idea how it ended up being run by a public servant in Brisbane and a lady in Townsville. They tell me they're quite nice ladies. I don't denigrate them, but I don't know how anyone can run a rodeo when they've never really been on a horse much—and one lives in Brisbane and the other in Townsville. It's not really surprising.

The Curry Merry Muster is still going very strong, in the neighbouring town of Cloncurry. It was the first rodeo in the area, and the second biggest rodeo in Queensland for a long time. It was founded by my father. He was President of the ARRO, the Australian Rough Riders Association. He wasn't a roughrider himself, but he was very active in rodeoing. As a little kid, I had to run the water over, because they built all of the chutes and grounds themselves. That was the spirit of rodeo. You had 12 or 15 blokes carrying all the big logs, putting them together and building the rodeo grounds, and I had to run the water over from our house, which was about 400 metres away, to all the workers. This is my father's song:

Curry's merry muster

Pride of the great north-west;

Owners and managers are in the show

Together with their boys to make it grow;

One big family to strike a blow

That's the way we do it at the Curry rodeo.

That's the spirit of rodeo. I worked at the bar. I wanted to watch the fights, and the bar had steel protection, so I was protected. A big mob would come down from Doomadgee and they'd get into fights. Vern Daisy, a very famous rugby league player, would be there enjoying it. It was a great atmosphere, with big trees and shade. I'd talk to all my mates. There was Kenny Coleman, who I'd see every year—the greatest roughrider in Australian history; Grant Lillyman—one of the most prominent families the mid-west has ever produced; and Ronny Purse, my best mate—we had half a million acres together, the pair of us. I would run into all these people; I'd see them. It was a shady area, very well set out.

Now we just have a barren brick wall and nothing—not a tree, not an ounce of shade cover. No-one can drink at the bar and talk about old times; no-one wants to, because of the incredible heat and barrenness. If you had anything to do with the town, you would know that. You would know that you need trees and maybe a shade shed there. You would know that. My son, Robbie Katter, the state member of parliament, lives in Mount Isa. My family has lived in the Mount Isa-Cloncurry area for about 120 or 130 years now. (Time expired)