Bush community bands together to keep century-old tradition alive

Slumped together in a horse stable, Liz Soames has one thing on her mind.

“I’d like to wash Eidsvold out of my hair — I need a long hot shower hands down,” she said.

Ms Soames had been in the saddle driving cattle along an old stock route for a week with her best mates Emma Master and Julie Stenhouse.

Mustering about 500 beasts in the Eidsvold Cattle Drive, five hours north of Brisbane, was hard going.

Ms Stenhouse said she hoped the girls didn’t hold her 50th birthday plans against her.

“So that’s why we’re here; I think the girls still like me,” Ms Stenhouse said.

Ms Soames had travelled from Brisbane to take part in one of Australia’s last surviving cattle drives.

Now in its 10th year, the biennial Eidsvold Cattle Drive retraces the stock routes blazed through the Queensland bush more than a century ago.

Ms Soames and her two friends of more than 20 years were among the 30 participants this year.

Ms Masters said their close friendship and mutual love of horses drew them to the cattle drive.

“Little girls dream about horses, I never grew out of it,” she said.

Ms Soames said the group of participants bonded during the week-long journey.

“You put a whole bunch of people from different walks of life in the same place, you’ve got to get along, you’ve got to work together,” she said.

“Good people skills, if you didn’t have them, you’ve got them by the end of the week.”

Doubling of fuel costs no barrier

Eidsvold resident Rebekah Watt celebrated her 57th birthday on the drive through the North Burnett.

“This is the best. I’m with my best friend, on a horse, in the country,” Ms Watt said.

“Life is good.”

The army veteran reflected on the spirit of the tight-knit community that pulled together to save this year’s cattle drive.

Fuel costs doubled in March, prompting organisers to hold an emergency meeting to discuss whether to go ahead.

The following day, locals donated $5,000 and a 200-litre fuel pod, used to power the drive’s bus and generators, to pull the drive back from the brink of cancellation.

All proceeds from the drive will be donated to health services crucial to the region, including Lifeflight and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

“This community is just so solid,” Ms Day said.

“We’ve had floods and fires and all those things happen.

“The community itself, everyone pitches in and it’s just phenomenal. I love living here.”

‘You won’t see us sit around and whinge’

At the dinner that evening at Eidsvold Station, local butcher Mick Kerr took a break from cooking a roast dinner for 240 people over a campfire.

A busload of people from around the North Burnett had joined the drive’s drovers and volunteers to celebrate the completion of the drive the following day.

Mr Kerr donated 11 beef rumps for the dinner along with 40kg of bacon, 70kg of sausages and $7,500 cash to the cattle drive.

“She’s a bit of a mission but yeah, I love it every bit of it,” he said.

He said the town was determined to see the event go ahead.

“One thing you won’t see, you won’t see us sit around and whinge,” Mr Kerr said.

“If we’ve got to sort it ourselves, that’s what we’ll do. When an event like this is on, everyone pulls together, they make it happen and we have the best time we can.”

Ros Dare travelled 1,400km from the NSW town of Shellharbour to take part in the cattle drive.

She said she would spend about $1,800 on diesel, but was more concerned about the availability of fuel.

“Worst-case scenario, we could ride along the freeway, and I’d probably get lots of cheers and beeps because everybody would have known why I was riding and not driving,” Ms Dare said.

Ms Stenhouse said she needed a few nights’ sleep in her own bed before making any decisions about joining the next cattle drive in 2028.

“Ask me again in a year, it might take 12 months to recover,” she said.

“I think just that achievement of completing it is really satisfying.”

Ms Soames hoped the iconic cattle drive would continue for many years to come.

“If communities like Eidsvold didn’t do this, people like us would never get to experience this,” she said.

“It’s just something quite unique and amazing, I really hope that it continues because you just can’t get it anywhere else.”