Rodeo is coming to town

BY SANDRA SIAGIAN

PEOPLE won’t have to travel to the country to get a taste of what a rodeo is all about after Hurstville Council decided to stage an event later this year.

The Australian Bushmen’s Campdraft and Rodeo Association (ABCRA) made the proposal for the council to host a rodeo at Lugarno, following a visit by the Hurstville mayor and general manager to the council’s sister city in Tamworth.

Councillors decided at the council meeting last Wednesday to hold the event later this year, which will cost the council more than $23,000. Councillor Anne Wagstaff was the only one to vote against the event, and agreed it was a good idea but she couldn’t support spending that much money on a rodeo instead of on stormwater drainage work. The council will ask the Lugarno Lions Club and St George Cancer Care Centre fund-raising committee if the rodeo can be part of September’s Lugarno Spring Fair at Gannons Park, which has hosted a horse show by Equestrian NSW for the past three years.

Hurstville mayor Steve McMahon said it would depend how much time was needed to organise the event to decide if it could be part of the fair. The rodeo could include some of Australia’s leading open and junior competitors and will include bull riding, saddle bronco riding and barrel racing. ABCRA has offered to donate the competitor entry fees to the St George Cancer Care Centre at St George Hospital.

St George and Sutherland Shire Leader.