Three hours drive from Cairns in the vast wilderness of Cape York in far-north Queensland, is a little town called Laura. 

And for 128 years, this little town that is not much more than a roadhouse and a pub has hosted the annual Laura Amateur Turf Club Race meeting, attracting jockeys, horses and racegoers from all over the state.

Fans and competitors alike come from hundreds of kilometres around to take part in what has grown into an internationally known race, rodeo and campdraft event, all surrounded by a huge bush camp thronging with 3000 fans  gathering for the weekend’s festivities. Tickets to this year’s event on the last weekend of June completely sold out.

On this episode of Streets of Your Town, we’ll meet some of the amazing bush characters and rodeo riders that keep this annual tradition alive, and even a couple of the journos who keep on top of their 150,000 kilometre patch of wild outback country to report what’s going on for their treasured Cape York Weekly readership - in one of the few print editions of a weekly regional newspaper left in Queensland.

You'll the legendary 80 year old former jockey Slick Davies - who now acts as the caretaker all year round for the Laura racetrack, so that it’s ready for its annual moment of race day glory. He was kind enough to speak to me just before the Laura Races, from the verandah of his house overlooking the track he takes so much pride in.

Slick is joined by his old mate Bluey Forsyth - who’s called the Laura Races and many others on the country horse racing circuit in Queensland’s far-north for decades. I love how you can hear their close mateship reflected in their conversation…

Then of course there are the rodeo riders like Anthony Ryan who make this annual event such a spectacle.

Shandelle Hilditch talks to us too - she's competed in campdraft and rodeo events on the circuit since she was a child, and now takes great pride in her children taking part as well.

Spending the weekend at the Laura Races and Rodeo has shown me not only what a great event this is for bringing together locals from all around the far flung reaches of this remote stretch of far-north Queensland, but it’s also shown me the cultural importance of keeping this Australian tradition alive.

As shown by the presence of two reporters from the Cape York Weekly - the editor Lyndon Keane and journo Chisa Hasegawa, who reported extensively on the event. We talk to them in this special edition nod to my Journo Project series.

Thanks to all the characters who I met at the Laura Races Rodeo and campdraft who you can hear in this order:

• Laura Racetrack caretaker Slick Davies and race caller Bluey Forsyth from 2:53
• International professional bull rider Anthony Ryan from 13:59
• Legendary campdraft and rodeo rider Shandell Hilditch 18:38
• Cape York Weekly journo Chisa Hasegawa and editor Lyndon Keane from 24:25

You can read the latest happenings in this remote corner of the world at the Cape York Weekly here: https://capeyorkweekly.com.au/

For more shownotes and links - please go to my substack for this episode at soyt.substack.com

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