Eidsvold cattle drive keeps tradition of droving alive

For the 4^th event, the drive which was meant to start on Sunday, April 7, but did not actually kick off due to rain until Monday, April 8, left from Tireen and went through to Saturday.

It involved walking a mob of 450 head of cattle from Tireen through Tandora, Culcragie, Euroka and Eidsvold Station to where, on the last day, they strolled through the main street of Eidsvold to the showgrounds.

This year's boss drovers were Bruce Tye and Graham Pott, both of Eidsvold, and there were 23 drover participants aged from seven to 65.

Eidsvold Cattle Drive president Rebecca Scholl said the drive was meant to be a recreation of a drive by drover Martin Snelling, who in 1932 sold more than 7000 head at the local saleyards.

She said the Eidsvold Cattle Drive was not a perfect retracing of Martin Snelling's drive, but he often drove cattle along a similar route.

"So, what we did was, we wanted to recreate (that drive) and we just feel it's a very unique experience. A lot of people have horse trail rides and endurance rides, but to walk 450 head of cattle is something a lot of the participants had never done before," she said.

"And, it's a big job to get them all there and educated so it's got a little bit more complexity to it (than a trail ride) because you're obviously walking live animals as opposed to just riding your horse somewhere."

Mrs Scholl said the event was "absolutely" about keeping the spirit of droving alive because the Eidsvold area was very much a beef cattle region.

She said RM Williams, who had a couple of properties in the area, was very big on keeping those skills alive in the bush.

"It's a similar thing, it's about keeping that awareness around the history of what used to happen back in the day," she said.

Sandra Williamson, a participant in all four Eidsvold Cattle Drives, said the area around Eidsvold was lovely country to ride through and the drive catered to all riding abilities and all sorts of horses.

Riding 10-year-old standard bred, Diabolo Danny, Mrs Williamson, 63, said the country was undulating, with a few hills, with different trees and grasses to that around where she lived at Moura.

"It's just totally different country to ride through," she said.

"I've never really asked how far we go each day, some days it seems like 100 miles, some days it seems like you've only gone half a dozen miles.

"The highlight always is if they've had rain as the country is so green and beautiful and there are stretches of water here and there to water your horse and the cattle...plus the cooking was superb once again this year so you certainly don't lose any weight on these drives."

As well as the Eidsvold Cattle Drive, Mrs Williamson has taken part in horse rides through the Pyrenees in Spain, New Zealand, Argentina, the Kimberleys and Snowy Mountains.

"They're all varied, but the best ride is when you're on your own horse. I know in Spain we were given very good horses...we had some beautiful Andalusian horses to ride through the mountains, it was exceptional, long hours, but fantastic riding," she said.

Mrs Scholl said the event was a fabulous week because, apart from rain on the first day, the weather was perfect with no dust and there was water running through the creeks.

"And we probably had the best team of participants in terms of very capable, willing drovers so they did an excellent job and everything else ran very smoothly," she said.

"The food was absolutely amazing at the camp and the cattle were extremely well behaved and we finished at the showgrounds on Saturday with our finale with 1000 people through the gate for the rodeo that night."

Mrs Scholl said at this stage they did not know how much money they had raised, but sponsorship this year was a lot higher than previous years.

Money raised from the drive goes to Lifeflight, the RFDS and Rotary Lodge in Bundaberg, which provides affordable accommodation for patients and carers requiring hospital treatment.

This year's mob included cattle from Hutchinson Grazing, the Vander Have family, and Darcy and Kara Knudsen.