3 minute read
QUEENSLAND ATHRA RIDE
A pleasure ride with a practical purpose
This year’s Queensland ATHRA ride raised over $7,000 towards drought relief, writes JANE CAMENS.
We knew there were fires. The skies in northern New South Wales were brown with smoke haze, and news reports were dire, but it was the time of year when the South-East Queensland branch of the Australian Trail Horse Riding Association (ATHRA) holds its annual eightday not-to-be-missed September camp. Most of us who’d booked held our collective breath, waiting to hear whether it was safe to ride.
Some Tenterfield riders who usually join the camp cancelled early because they were too busy rescuing horses from fire-affected neighbouring properties to come this year. But the Beaudesert ATHRA Club, which organised this year’s camp with the support of the Queensland Government, said the ride was on. We loaded up our floats and hit the road.
Every mile driving northwest from the relatively green coastal strip of northern New South Wales, across the Border Ranges into Queensland, the country grew progressively drier. Around each bend the land stretched out in increasingly parched vistas. Finally, my mare Beauty and I arrived in Killarney, a small township 35 kilometres southeast of Warwick on the Condamine River, where we joined some 60 other riders. The Killarney Showground was base camp. Across the road, all that remained of the former golf club was a sad, peeling sign. The Condamine River was now no more than a muddy creek. The air smelled of smoke from the fires just across the border. I’d never seen land so dry that wasn’t designated ‘desert’.
It’s ironic that Killarney was given its name in 1840 by two Irish brothers, the Leslies, who were reminded of the green and lush Killarney in County Kerry in Ireland. In those days in its Australian namesake, there were many lakes and wooded hills. But most of the lakes were drained for agriculture, and the timber felled. Nevertheless, although drought has ravaged this country, it’s always recovered, but, by September this year, following the worst drought the area has ever seen, almost all the dams and remaining lakes were dry. Most of the creek crossings were dry. One local told me that there were dams empty that had never been empty before.
It’s strange to think that in February, only seven months earlier, when Erin Quirke, President of the Beaudesert Shire ATHRA club, made a reconnaissance trip to the area, the country was green.
“It was a completely different place,” she says. “The country was lush and the river crossings knee deep.”
Erin Quirke, the camp organiser, on her horse Tim.
Main image: Riding by the Killarney Pub. Below: 60 riders set off on this year’s south-east Queensland’s ATHRA ride to raise money for drought relief.
The past seven months have been devastating to the country, even though there is a strange beauty in the drought-devastated landscape.
Erin stressed that all the riders were required to respect the drought conditions. Only bucket sponges for horses were allowed and smoking was prohibited. Three fund-raising nights held during the camp (an auction and two fun ‘fines’ nights) raised $7,310 and this was donated to the local Country Women’s Association for its drought relief fund.
The camp chef, hailed for his ability to cater for so many hearty appetites, bought all his supplies from local stores and donated the camp food scraps to a local chicken farm. The local produce store was the source of all the ordered feed for the horses, and the local pub must have made a bit of money from sun-downer sessions. Additionally, the showground earned $10,000 from the eightday camp.
“We’re putting money into the local businesses,” says Claire Bourke, veteran ATHRA camp organiser. “If there’s one thing you should write about this camp its that we’re trying to give back to the community.”
What the camp gave to the community in the way of cash, the camp attendees got back from Killarney in the form of memories, friendships, and strengthened bonds with our fabulous horses who carried us for up to six hours a day.
It was a great lesson in how communities can band together to create a bigger purpose than their original intention.
