GRAEME McKenzie is a quiet, family man who does not seem comfortable talking about his achievements.
While the cattleman has a reputation for turning off quiet, fat bullocks from his and wife Joan’s Grey Brahman and Brangus herd at Taurus, Blackwater, he is also a campdrafting legend.
His lengthy list of winnings includes two Australian Campdrafting Association awards and while he may no longer compete, the fire has been passed to his children and grandchildren.
The signs were there from the beginning.
When he was five, Mr McKenzie went to the Clermont Show with his father and won the best boy rider under 10 on a mare borrowed from a neighbour.
This ignited an urge to compete.
“When I grew up, all I wanted to do was ride horses, and in those days I had to milk four to five cows every morning, and separate the milk for the household.
“My governess would try to teach me some schooling, but I suppose I spent more time looking out the window, wanting to spend more time with my horse.”
This was put to a halt for a number of years when Mr McKenzie was sent to the Rockhampton Grammar School.
“I never stopped thinking of my horses while I did my school work. The house masters were strict and that was hard to take, but I never got into too much trouble.”
At 15, Mr McKenzie finished school and returned to help his parents on the property. It was hard, physical work, but in between fencing, he had a taste of the campdraft, where he was competing against some veterans.
“I watched them and I learned a lot from the way they rode and talked.”
At that time – the late 1940s and early 1950s – roads were questionable and getting to campdrafts was an adventure in itself.
“I had to ride and lead my ponies about 20 miles through heavy scrub to get to the Bluff Campdraft.
“I began well before daylight and got home well after dark.
“Almost every time I would come home with a ribbon or two, which I left on the kitchen table for Dad to see, hoping he would take it easy on me on Monday.”
In an earlier campdraft, Mr McKenzie had placed second in the maiden and bought a secondhand willy jeep made with a pipe crate.
He used this to cart his two good mares, Roulette and Nonette.
“We had to put the horses on a rail train in those early days and I had my little old vehicle and we’d take them off the train when we got to Duaringa or Dingo.”
Mr McKenzie would often walk the camphorses to the grounds a day early to give them a rest.
“Nonette and Roulette knew what it was like to jump onto the back of the willy and walk 15 miles at night when the road was wet and boggy.
“When I upgraded to a truck, Tangles, Volette, Sequel, Valetta, Clover Lass and later Asset Black Patent and Attitude, with many horses in between, travelled to and from the drafts.”
Nonette went on to win more than 30 drafts and a Gold Cup in 1956 before the Australian Campdrafting Association was formed.
The early drafts were just as hard to win against campdrafters like Charlie Flohr, Stuart Ross and many others, as conditions left much to be desired.
“Grounds and roads were unpredictable; rules easily became a no-rule.”
Mr McKenzie’s special win was the North Queensland Cup at Nebo in 1975 on a maiden mare called Volette against top horses like Cadet and Baldy.
He went on to win three Gold Cups at Clermont – 1981 on Sequel, 1982 on Sarscheree, 1986 on Valetta – and the 1983 Grandfather Clock at Chinchilla on Valetta.
“Campdrafting numbers are just getting bigger and bigger and it makes it a lot harder to be placed, let alone win,” he said of today’s competition.
“I think the competition is a good thing these days and there are a number of good horses and everyone works to win.”
Although the big competition days are behind him, Mr McKenzie is riding “in a small way”.
“I only take two to three horses now. I still enjoying going, although I don’t get a lot of ribbons these days,” he laughed.
