On the weekend of the 5th, 6th and 7th October competitors travelled from far and wide to reach the Northern Territory town of Tennant Creek to attend the Barkly Goldrush Campdraft. Nominations of 850 exceeded all expectations and there was some concern on the committee’s behalf as to whether we would get through the entire weekend on time!!! Well, we certainly did not need to worry as the weekend ran extremely smoothly while under the expert judging of Wayne Bean and Stephen Bryce the always efficient and entertaining announcing by Rod Bremner, the hard working committee and the S Kidman and Co staff.
The Barkly Gold Rush is a 3 day Campdraft and Challenge held in the Northern Territory town of Tennant Creek, located along the Stuart Highway. The township of Tennant Creek has a rich history in Gold; it is known to be the home of Australian’s last great gold rush, it also had one of Australia’s most productive gold fields, with over a five and half million ounces of gold found in the Tennant field. Today the town has diverse history in Aboriginal culture, pastoralism and mining (gold, silver & copper). The Ghan train that travels from Adelaide to Darwin passes through the small township of 3,500 people.
Not only was the focus of the weekend on campdrafting but a large part of the weekend for the committee was about raising money for The Richter Family and what a weekend it was with total funds raised for the Richter Family being $19151.60
The following will give you a brief outline of what the Richter family are currently going through:
On Monday the 10th of September life for Rusty and Julie Richter took a turn for the worst. Their beautiful 3 year old son, Nathan, was diagnosed with a rare childhood disease called, Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH). Langerhans cells are part of every bodies infection-fighting defence system. LCH develops when normal Langerhans cells become overactive and lose control, they cluster together forming tumor-like lesions that begin to destroy normal tissues in the body. Like cancer, LCH involves abnormal cell behaviour in the immune system but thankfully, it is not a cancer. On the down side, Chemotherapy decreases immune activity and therefore, is used to treat the overactivity of abnormal Langerhan cells. Areas of the body that can be affected by LCH vary but can include bones, skin, mouth, ears, gastro symptom, lungs, muscles/tissue, pituitary, brain, liver, spleen, lymph nodes and the central nervous system.
In Nathan’s case, his bone lesions went undiagnosed. It wasn’t until the LCH started to attack his endocrine system and symptoms of diabetes insipidus (excess sodium levels in the blood) began to show. Over the weeks leading up to his diagnoses he was drinking huge amounts of water, in excess of 6L a day! An MRI scan of Nathan’s brain showed part of his pituitary gland had been destroyed. Further studies of the scans revealed LCH lesions in his skull. Body scans found more sites on his femur. The damage caused to his pituitary gland can’t be reversed and he will have diabetes insipidus for the rest of his life. The Richter family have now had to leave VRD where Rusty and Julie manage and relocate to Perth so Nathan can undergo twelve months of chemotherapy.
Friday night saw the first fundraising event for the weekend which was the stallion auction and little did we know this would go so well, the bidding was hot and fast right from the start and it took no time at all the sell each of the service fees, the results were:
Boonara Dartaghan owned by Marcus and Shelly Curr, purchased by Ken and Leigh Ford for $1100
Haidas Stylish Pepto owned by Laurie brown and Liana Quirk, purchased by Jarrod Williams for $1300
Haidas Stylish Pepto owned by Laurie brown and Liana Quirk, purchased by Daly Waters Campdraft Assoc for $10000
Boonara Crimson owned by Mitch and Leiza Gollan, purchased by Leah Williams for $1100
McNamara Refund owned by Narda Grover, purchased by Damien Jamieson for $1150
Pepto’s Mighty Oak, owned by Paraway Pastoral Company, purchased by Chris and Sally Towne for $1100
Almora Poppa Top owned by Wayne and Rachael Bean, purchased by Tom and Alison Haines for $1200
Extralite Lethal Act owned by Claire McNeven, purchased by Cameron and Belinda Rasheed for $500.
Hat fines came to a total of $301, there was a fine of $5 per hat coming off when drafting.
Donation tin raised $900.60
Mt Riddock Redspot $500
It is believed that the purchase of the $10,000 service fee to Haidas Stylish Pepto is an Australian record. “Willie” as he is fondly known is owned by Laurie Brown and Liana Quirk and is by Pepto Stylish Oak out of Haida Lena Lite. Laurie purchased him as an embryo from Morning Sun Ranch in Western Australia. Willie has quite an impressive list of achievements to date in only 2 years of drafting, in total he has been shown 16 times and has finaled and or placed 13 times. Great achievement for “Willie”, Laurie and Liana.
The $10,000 service fee was bought by The Daly Waters Campdraft Association. Spokesperson and President Raymond Murphy said that The Murphy family will be donating a well bred mare to put to “Willie” then the resulting foal will be broken in, trained then sold with the proceeds of the sale also going back to the Richter Family.
What a wonderful community we have, it is just so heartening to know that everyone is always prepared to dig deep in times of need. The Richter Family Fundraiser has a Facebook page, where you can follow Nathan’s story as he bravely battles this disease.
A highlight of the weekend is always for the committee to decide who they will choose to give out the Lyle Kent Award. Lyle and Helen Kent are great sponsors of the Barkly Goldrush Campdraft and have been for many years. The committee normally gives this award to an individual who stands out over the weekend for their overall contribution throughout the weekend. This year we decided to give the award to all the Kidman staff to thank them for all their enormous effort and hard work over the weekend. This award is normally given out to an individual who really stands out over the weekend with helping out but it was too hard to pick any single person out as they all put in a huge effort. Thanks very much to Lyle and Helen and all the team at Kent Saddlery for being such great supporters of our Campdraft.
In summary, what a wonderful weekend we had, a special thankyou Helen Springs/Brunchilly S Kidman and Co for donating such a superb line of beautiful running heifers, the finals saw run after run and made for very exciting spectating, even the mini’s were able to put their cattle around to get the gate!!! It certainly could not have been achieved without all our wonderful sponsors over the weekend, judges Wayne Bean from Katherine and Stephen Bryce from Glenormiston did a marvellous job, the hard working Barkly Goldrush committee and Helen Springs/Brunchilly, S Kidman and Co staff did an awesome job, working tirelessly all weekend to keep things running on time, well done to all involved.
Article Written by Sally Towne, Helen Springs, Secretary Barkly Campdraft Association.