Bringing home ‘Clancy’: from Central Qld to Yeoval

Alf And Sharon Cantrell

We set out from Yeoval on a Saturday morning towards the beginning of the school holidays travelling north/northwest looking for Clancy - made famous by the Banjo Paterson poem and a regular weekend visitor to the Banjo Paterson Museum.

Along the way we were encouraged by sightings from many local identities such as the “Fella from Cunnamulla” and shearer “Jackie Howe” - both of whom had sighted or heard of Clancy and pointed each time to the northwest. Each day brought a new adventure and a new sighting.

Banjo Paterson’s adventures buffalo shooting in the Northern Territory at the turn of the last century led us to helping to sponsor the annual Brunette Downs Campdraft, Rodeo and Race Meeting.

All the events were held at the very extensive and well-appointed Brunette Downs Race Club facilities

2,600kms from Yeoval!

En-route we stopped at Winton and had the evening meal with Greg North the great bush poet/ entertainer who calls into our Bush Poetry Day in Yeoval every February.

We were also lucky enough to catch two of his shows - one at North Gregory Hotel and the other at Winton Roadhouse Caravan Park entertainment area, both were great shows with no fixed charge - just a donation at the door.

If you are thinking of travelling north, we would recommend a stopover at the Winton Roadhouse Caravan Park and a visit to both shows which run every day during the tourist season.

We then travelled onto Camooweal on the N.T. border and stayed at the Camooweal Roadhouse Caravan Park with Kevin - an old mate from Pony Club days. Camooweal has a wonderful museum called the Drover’s Camp.

The Drovers Camp Festival is held annually on the last weekend in August ... put it in your calendar and join us next year 2024.

The race meeting and rodeo at Brunette Downs were very entertaining but one can only spend a certain amount of time watching campdrafting, and the Clancy trail ran cold.

We offered our services as volunteers for any jobs that they had available. We managed to snare the job of running the “Tote” over the two days of races. It kept us on our toes and was a great way of meeting the other visitors. The Tote only paid the winner in each race and the computer program, and the Territory law only allowed 100 bets to be taken on each race, so the queue started well before the bell.

On the way through Tambo in Central Queensland where a community-sponsored idea has led to a great industry of Tambo Teddies. We picked up ‘Trumby’ a teddy bear “Ringer”.He holds court every day at the Banjo Paterson Museum, so call in for a chat and a photo when next in town.

We intended to drive south to Adelaide along the Birdsville Track but all the rain that had fallen in the area made this impossible, so we skirted the rain which added nearly 1000km to the trip and still drove to Adelaide.

Here we spent a great day with Manfred and his family - all friends from our show selling days.

On the long trip home we covered another 1000km in a day.

Getting close to home we had a definite photo sighting of Clancy at Gulargambone, so we again wheeled north west and found him a little exhausted and homesick from his big adventure.

After a great reunion I drove him home!”

(Above) ‘Clancy’ found at Gulargambone - driven home to Yeoval by Alf Cantrell.

Alf and his wife, Sharon, founded and manage, the internationally famous Yeoval Banjo More than a Poet Museum.

The Express asked the Cantrells if they could share with our readers their latest camping/4WD adventure up north - and another of the couple’s magical outback trips following Banjo’s famous trails.

Please visit Yeoval’s Banjo More than a Poet Museum - (see below).

It’s a fabulous memorial to the life of Australia’s great poet, adventurer, writer, and wartime journalist.

The Cantrells are known for their coffee, tea, meals (and Sharon’s Devonshire Teas) and warm hospitality.

And, this museum full of visual and readable stories from long ago are ... well, amazing.

So much so that local, domestic, national and international visitors and officials place this museum on their important-places-to-visit itineraries.