Australian rodeo

Australian rodeo

Alan Wood on the great bucking mare, Curio. Photo taken shortly before Alan regained his seat and went on to make the required time.
Presence
Country or region	Australia

Rodeos have long been a popular competitor and spectator sport in Australia, but were not run on an organised basis until the 1880s.

Newspaper reports recorded public roughriding events that took place in Victoria during the 1880s. These events included competitions for roughriding and bullock-throwing which was accomplished by riding up to bullock, grabbing its tail and throwing it off balance and then tying its legs. This competition arose from the stockman's skill in capturing feral or wild cattle.

The National Agricultural Society of Victoria ran one of the earliest recorded events in 1888, when a roughriding competition was held at their annual show.

During the 1890s there were many Australian and some international Wild West shows travelling the country. Wirth's Wild West Show travelled Australia until the banks' crash in 1893. They then toured England, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America.

Proprietors such as Thorpe McConville, plus the outstanding buckjump riders; Lance Skuthorpe, the Gill family,Bibby Bros and Colin McLeod ran travelling roughriding shows. These shows increased the popularity of roughriding throughout much of Australia. The travelling rodeos provided displays of riding bucking horses and bullocks, whipcracking, performing dogs and ponies and rope-spinning. By 1930 the Great Depression left only a few of these travelling shows on the road.

The equipment used by early roughriders consisted of a poley saddle or exercise pad, without stirrups or a crupper and a chest rein that ran from the girth to the rider's hand, leaving him without any control of the buckjumper's head. Bullock and bareback riders were still permitted to use two hands at this stage.

During 1927 a rodeo organised in Adelaide, South Australia attracted an estimated 50,000 spectators. Melbourne staged a Wild West Show in 1934 which hired top Australian riders as well as a number of visiting cowboys. Following the success of the rodeo events at the Melbourne show the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales (NSW) planned an international rodeo for its 1935 Sydney Royal Easter Show and continued to invite international cowboys to its show.