General News
7 March, 2024
Rodeo event a big success
Nearly 4000 people packed the Maryborough Harness Racing Club to catch a glimpse of the M5 Maryborough Pro Rodeo last Friday. The event has been heralded as a success by the club and the local community, with Maryborough Harness Racing Club...
Nearly 4000 people packed the Maryborough Harness Racing Club to catch a glimpse of the M5 Maryborough Pro Rodeo last Friday.
The event has been heralded as a success by the club and the local community, with Maryborough Harness Racing Club secretary Jackson Barby amazed by the attendance.
“It was a fantastic turnout and it was great to see so many local people support the event,” he said.
“I was on the gate at one point and they just kept coming through and I was thinking we are going to run out of parks — I think there was not one square inch of space left by the end.
“I was chatting to a lady from Melbourne who came up, someone from Mt Isa, so it was good to see people coming to Maryborough who weren’t originally thinking about coming through town.
“The competitors were from all over Australia, they come from Queensland and South Australia and put on a great show.
“It’s probably the biggest event that we have had here for a fair while, and I’d say it’s one of the biggest events that Maryborough has had for a while.
“There were older people who came to the rodeo as kids and came along again to enjoy it, families who said it was a great night for them and their kids, and then there were the young people who on a Friday night in Maryborough had a great time in front of the band.”
According to Mr Barby, expansion to large community events has been in the works over the past 12 months as part of the club’s strategic plan.
“There are three pillars in our vision — one is to be a premier harness racing club first and foremost, the second is to be a premier event centre, and the third is to be a leader in our local community,” he said.
“Certainly those last two pillars were evident on Friday night.
“We have got the facilities, we have got the infrastructure, and we have got the drive to bring these sort of events to town.
“[These events] help put Maryborough on the map, puts money back into the economy and puts us on the map as an event centre.”
In terms of plans for future events, Mr Barby said the harness club has gained confidence from the rodeo and has invited community feedback on what they might want to see.
“The rodeo was a good test for us — this year was a chance to have a crack at this, see what the response was from the community and see how it ran,” he said.
“The club has just received a huge amount of positive feedback from the night, it is very humbling [on how] people were just extremely grateful that we had a crack at this.
“Of course you learn a lot because it was the first year, you learn what you can do better for next year and how we can further grow it.
“We got along with [M5 Rodeo Productions] really well, the vendors all reckoned they had a great night, so they are keen to come back next year.
“Hopefully it will become an annual event and people will know this time each year they are heading up to Maryborough.
“We are working hard at the moment to give our feature race-days a bit of a boost, but I would be interested to get feedback from people in town on what else we could bring to town.”
Upon reflection on the event, Mr Barby expressed his gratitude to everyone who made the night possible.
“I think it is important to thank our committee for having that progressive vision to take on something like this, and thank you to our members for backing us,” he said.
“We really need to thank the Carisbrook Lions Club, it doesn’t matter what you do, they will always put their hand up to help, they are just a fantastic asset to our local community.
“M5 Rodeo Productions were fantastic to deal with, and they really wanted to make sure they used local people to support the event.
“Most importantly thank you to the community, sometimes we can get caught up in the negativity of how there is nothing to do in town, so it was just fantastic to see how greatly supported it was and it was an overwhelming positive response.”
