One place we really wanted to stop at on the way through to Darwin was at the Daly Waters pub. We’d heard and read quite a bit about this place and were looking forward to seeing it. When we got about 30km south of Daly Waters we started seeing signs that there was a rodeo scheduled for that weekend at Daly Waters and we thought we might not get in. However we didn’t have a problem at all, probably due to the fact that we were there by 11am! It did get really busy later in the day though. We decided that since we hadn’t been to a ‘proper’ rodeo we would stay the extra night and check it out. Glad we did, we had a great time both at the pub and at the rodeo.
The pub does a great Beef and Barra BBQ for $19 head which was just fantastic and really good value – I’d recommend this over the normal menu options. It’s also fun just sitting in the bar watching everyone else. The bar has an interesting décor – consists mainly of donated knickers, bras, jocks and thongs, with a few overseas t-shirts and lots of foreign money also on display. It’s interesting watching people’s reactions.
The rodeo was very good. Unfortunately due to equine influenza, some of the horse events weren’t on, but there was still plenty to see. This was the first time we’d seen a campdraft where a rider has to separate a bull from the herd and then guide it through a series of obstacles. Watching the horse and rider do this is amazing – this event is usually undertaken by jackeroos and jilleroos. Talking to some of the riders later, it was interesting to find that they do this as part of their job and as soon as they get the opportunity they then do it for fun. It’s also when they get to catch up with friends that they don’t get to see very often, and to eat all the junk food they want to (they eat very well on the stations). Everyone we spoke to who works on a station really loves what they do, whether they are a jackeroo/jillaroo or the station cook, and some of them move around from station to station. From what I heard, they can work 3 months straight then have a week off (and if there’s a rodeo on somewhere, then that’s where they spend their week off). It’s hard work and long days but they love it.
