SYNOPSIS
Each year cowboys from across the Kimberley load up their saddles, chaps and wranglers and go rough riding. Some are local blackfellas born and bred in the saddle, others are young ringers from over east who come to muster through the dry. These are the cowboys who ride day in and day out, mustering the backblocks of stations like Moola Bulla and Mt Pierre. Come rodeo time they’re all chasing the same dream........gripped by the rodeo fever of the wild north west.
Rodeo Road provides a window to the harsh and rugged environment of the Kimberley cowboy and the surprisingly gentle characters that inhabit this world.
RODEO ROAD PREMIERED ON ABC IN 2000
In Depth.
Director David Batty has been passionate about the unique cowboy culture of the Kimberley since he first encountered the Halls Creek Rodeo around ten years ago. Since then he has made countless journeys through the Kimberley, returning regularly to Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing to check out the rodeo scene. Batty was always fascinated with what made the locals so obsessed with rodeo – why risk life and limb for the thrill of mere eight second bull ride? Rodeo Road looks at this obsession amidst the cowboy culture that pervades life in the Kimberley.
Amongst the rough and tumble of the rodeo arena and the hard life of the cattle station ringer there is an other-worldliness in the life of a cowboy. There exists an authentic cowboy culture in this country that is almost timeless and it is the essence of this culture that Rodeo Road reflects through the characters that inhabit this world.
It is on the stations that the reality of a cowboy’s (or cowgirl’s) life is to be found. The young ringers, usually boys and occasionally a couple of women, work seven days a week, 9 months of the year, 14 hours a day for around $40 a day. The Dolby boys ride horses all day then practice bucking out in every spare moment they have. Douglas Dolby wins a scholarship to rodeo school in the United States. Robby Newman travels over 4000km to make the journey up north simply to travel the rodeo circuit. Naomi breaks all the rules and has a go at steer riding. Wayne Swan drives a huge truck at Argyle Diamond Mine and in his sleep dreams about rodeo.
They talk about Rodeo Fever. Once it gets hold of you, you’re gone. Before you know what you’re doing you’re on the road to the next rodeo, forgetting all about the busted bones you’ve just nursed back together. They obviously aren’t in it for the money. There’s only one thing for certain – when it comes to rodeo time, nothing can keep a half-decent cowboy away. In the Kimberley, rodeo is the natural extension of the work done out on the station, and as such it becomes the natural arena and the neutral space for blackfellas and whitefellas to come together in an expression and celebration of their shared cowboy culture.
