Kooroorinya: The race is on

Formally called the Oakley Amateur Picnic Race Club but best known among the people of Queensland’s north-west as the Kooroorinya Races, its committee is so determined to keep tradition going that horses for the Mother’s Day weekend meeting are being offered free agistment.

Anyone who wants to race a horse at one of the few grassfed meetings left in the bush but is lacking in grass at home can avail themselves of the sweet feed growing on the special lease the racecourse is situated on, 50km south of Prairie on the Muttaburra Road, thank to 5 inches of rain that thundered down over the track in January.

By a strange coincidence, the race club’s president John Wearing was there at the time, and was able to witness Tower Hill Creek grow from a stagnant pool of water to a torrent pouring across the volcanic rock cliff and filling the sandy bed below.

Not everyone around the wider Hughenden area was fortunate enough to experience a similar deluge at their place, so as well as making use of the feed at Kooroorinya, the more fortunate property owners have hit upon a way of allowing everyone a chance to have their horse greet the judge first, by pooling them all and moving them around to properties with grass.

“A couple of races might have been missed in the past because of drought or moved to later in the year, such as 1983 when the races were held in September,” John said.

“People are really doing it hard at the moment and the races are such a social occasion – we wanted to do everything we could to keep them going.”

Last year they had about 58 nominations, and John said he could not see why similar numbers would not nominate for the program again this year.

“The other grassfed meetings in the region – at Tower Hill and the western picnics at Corfield – have had to cancel, so I think they’ll be keen to come to us.”

When they first started nearly a century ago, the races were by invitation only, but these days the invitation extends to everyone.

John remembers being so excited as a kid as the races approached that he could barely sleep at night.

He was one of the lucky children taken out of boarding school for the weekend that year to come back home.

“Just as an example of how highly it’s valued, last year, to comply with Queensland Racing’s new rules, we held a three-day working bee that was attended by 43 people.

“It cost $700 in beer but it was well worth it.”

The racing weekend at the complex, which boasts a dance hall, hot-water showers and extensive campgrounds, runs over three days and has plenty of night-time entertainment on offer once horses have been fed and watered.

Many stories have become legend, such as people playing games of rugby league with a coconut on Thursday’s enthusiastic first night.

The younger generation gets to enjoy a fancy dress disco on the Friday night, while a band is booked for Saturday night’s entertainment.

Dial in lolly drops, a Ringer’s Challenge, an old tennis court filled with jumping castles and the like, and you have a great antidote to drought and troubled times.

Two people determined to ensure Kooroorinya’s annual race meeting is the best it can be are the ground caretakers, Neville and Pauline Sutcliffe.

Describing themselves as “not-so-grey nomads”, the couple from Wodonga on the Victorian border were on their way home from Western Australia and Darwin when an advertisement to look after the swimming, fishing and bird-watching area caught their eye a year ago.

Last year they hosted 400 campers on the grounds and were kept busy doing guided tours of the grounds and its racing history.

“We tell them that it’s a Kooroorinya tradition that husbands have to piggy back their wives around the 2000m track, carrying a stubby – no-one’s taken us up on it,” Neville laughed.

The bush boule games and ensuing happy hour have become a highlight of the tourist season, and Pauline loves hearing whispers of a birthday so she can whip up a cake and bring out the candles for a special celebration.