King Of The Ranges

Celebrating skills of the bush

Nestled at the foot of the Great Dividing Range where the New England highway leaves the Hunter Valley of NSW, you’ll find the small country town of Murrurundi. Known as the ‘crown of the Hunter’, Murrurundi was settled in the early 1800s and still boasts many of its original old buildings, cemeteries and businesses, the whole town is heritage listed.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY SAL EDWARDS


One of Murrurundi’s annual draw-cards is the King of the Ranges Stockman’s Challenge & Bush Festival. A town which celebrates its heritage everyday also takes a three day opportunity to celebrate some of the valued skills of the bush from its pioneering years. Some of the skills on show each year are whip cracking, horseshoeing,
stock handling, packing and leading a packhorse, even post splitting and billy boiling. Other events, displays and entertainment include heavy horse teams, bush poetry,
horse and sulkies, pony tricks, mounted pony club games, a dog high-jump competition, trick riding, State of
Origin barrel race, teams cattle sorting, a maiden campdraft
and the Shearers verse Farriers hay stacking and bullock ride. The kids don’t miss out on being part of the action
with a junior whip crack competition and, always a
highlight of the weekend, the wild goat race. This three-day event draws competitors and visitors from up and down the eastern states and this year, was held from
Friday the 30th April until Sunday the 2nd of May.


The main event, the King of the Ranges Stockman’s Challenge, tests skilled horsemen and women in their abilities in events such as stock handling, horseshoeing, whip cracking, cross country, the packhorse event and a bareback obstacle course. These events make up the
preliminary events of the competition and only the top ten competitors go through to the final. The two final events for the men’s competition are the brumby catch and the poley saddle buckjump and ultimately decide who the ‘King of the Ranges’ will be. 2010 was the first year that the challenge hosted a ladies final - it
included a wild-horse catch and a bareback barrel race.
Competitors from fifteen years of age compete, vying for prizes in either, the junior competition or the ladies or men’s competition. The junior titles are awarded at the completion of the preliminary events.

The Preliminary Events
The Jurox King of The Ranges weekend kicks off bright and early on the Friday, with each competitor and their horse completing a vet, gear and skills check prior to the first of the preliminary events. Each competitor must use the one competition horse and saddle throughout all of the events. The competitors are divided amongst teams of different colours. The teams complete each preliminary
event together and each individual is scored and the scores accumulate towards the individual. With ring
entertainment in the main ring and each of the
preliminary events running at the same time, there is plenty to watch. On the Saturday at lunch time, all the teams gather together for the cross country and in number order, each rider attempts the cross country course. Each rider aims to complete the course in the optimum time-frame and finishes the event with a vet-check. It really is a great event for the spectators, with a view of the whole course from your chair and the last few jumps right in front of the crowd – what more can you ask for?!

The stock handling event proved a challenging event this year. Each competitor, along with their working dog is required to move three head of cattle through a small course. The course starts in the camp with a cut-out score and then continues out in the ring, taking the cattle through a small laneway, a gateway in the middle of the ring and then finally yarding them into a small yard.

An event which really high-lighted the horsemanship skills of each competitor was the bareback obstacle course. Completed bareback, extra points were awarded to those that rode in a halter or totally bridleless. The challenging course included a variety of obstacles and challenges - from gates to jumps and hanging obstacles
to serpentine through. The event was finished off with a freestyle opportunity to show the judges their
horsemanship abilities. Some of the talent displayed
included laying the horse down to crack the whip or swing a rope over, even starting and revving a chainsaw from aboard the horse. This really was one of the events where each rider’s natural talent and affinity with their horse could shine through.

Into The Finals
At the completion of the preliminary events the scores were close. Leading the competition was the 2008 and 2009 winner, Trevor Nash, attempting to take the title for a third consecutive year. The top ten competitors make the final and are eligible to compete in the final two events - the brumby catch and the poly saddle buckjump. The top five lady scorers compete in the ladies final. For the second year running a female competitor made the overall top ten and she was given the opportunity to mix it with the men in the men’s final. For the first time, Christy Connor decided to give it a crack. This was the very first time in the history of the event that a lady rider saddled up for the men’s final and the crowd was behind her - every step of the way. The junior titles are awarded
as they are placed at the completion of the preliminary
events, even one of the juniors, Malory Nankervis placed in the top ten on 483.7 points. With that sterling effort, Malory was sashed the Junior winner for 2010.

The top ten finalists this year were Trevor Nash (518pts), Ryan Pendergast (509.4), Christy Connor (494.7), Dave Winter (491.8), Ben Campbell (491.1), Bronson
Macklinshaw (491), Shane Easey (490.1), Jason Nairne (487.2), Lachie Cossor (484.7) and David Mitchell (483.3).

The top five ladies entering the first ever ladies
final were, Lorraine Dutton, Kirby Nankervis, Sarah
Connelly, Linda Cossor and Sharon Nankervis.

2010 Finals
The finals Sunday at the King of the Ranges has a
brimming progam, with the maiden Campdraft running in Ring 2 and plenty of entertainment prior to the finals, in the main arena. From 8am the crowd filled the hill surrounding the main arena enjoying the non-stop ring entertainment and all in anticipation for the challenge presentation parade and the finals after lunch. With all competitors mounted and in the ring for the parade, the finalists are introduced. The ladies finals ran first, with the wild-horse catch and then the bareback barrel race. Lorraine Dutton took the highest scoring round in both the wild horse catch and the barrel race and sealed her King of the Ranges win. Kirby Nankervis placed second and Sarah Connelly finished in third place. In fourth and fifth place were Linda Cossor and Sharon Nankervis. The added final to the program was well received and it really was great to see the ladies battle it out too.

The buzz in the crowd before the men’s final was
amazing. It seemed we were all holding our breath. Every woman was secretly backing Christy I’m sure! As these final two events unfolded before us, the appreciation the crowd had for all these competitors only grew. The grit, determination and sheer talent of the ladies and men competing before the crowd was inspiring to say the very least. My family and I were backing Trevor Nash, hoping that he and his horse Simpson could secure a victory for a third year running, unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. The brumby that they drew in the brumby catch was a tough one and outran them, not once letting up. How the scoreboards can turn in these final two events!

There is no doubt that the high-light of the brumby catch was witnessing Christy catch her brumby. On her trusty grey horse, the duo gave it all they had to catch and hold onto the buckskin brumby. With cheers of enthusiasm and a whole crowd supporting her, they made it through the four minutes. At the Calcutta auction the night before, Christy had humbly declared that she’d give it her best shot and there was no mistake about it – she certainly did just that.

The ten brumby colts used in the brumby catch, were brought in from the Pilliga scrub. Anyone could then buy them for $300 each as part of the brumby protection
program. These brumbies were then re-released into a suitable area.

To score in both the brumby catch and the poley saddle buck jump is vitally important to having a chance at the title. Lachie Cossor, from Allen’s Flat in Victoria did just that and after entering the finals ranked ninth, was named the 2010 King of the Ranges. It really is an unpredictable
event, where even after witnessing all competitors
complete the final – the crowd has absolutely no idea how the scores have tallied and awaits the final
winner’s announcement. There were genuine shouts of
congratulationswhen Lachie was awarded the 2010 title. It certainly was a weekend to remember for Lachie and his wife Linda, who came fourth in the ladies. Fellow competitors and those privileged to witness the gruelling finals, hold genuine admiration for these men and
women, their horses and the talent and determination it takes to succeed in these tough events. Jason Nairne, from Cassilis in NSW won the brumby catch event and Bronson Macklinshaw won the poley saddle buckjump.

The final placings for the 2010 Stockman’s Challenge were:
1st – Lachie Cossor
2nd – Bronson Macklinshaw
3rd – Shane Easey
4th – Ryan Pendergast
5th – Trevor Nash
6th – Ben Campbell
7th – Dave Winter
8th – Jason Nairne
9th – Christy Connor
10th – David Mitchell

The King of the Ranges Stockman’s Challenge was also the third and final event in the Triple Crown series. The Hawkesbury River Saddle Company proudly donated
three trophy saddles to the highest scoring Open,
Ladies and Junior competitors of the Dalgety, Corryong and Murrurundi Stockman’s Challenges. Out of
twenty-five stockmen the Open series was won by Shane Easey of Willow Tree, also the King of the Ranges
President. Christy Connor won the Ladies and Ben
Donehue won the Junior saddle.

The King of the Ranges weekend has gone from strength to strength since its first year in 2004. It really is a great family weekend, full of entertainment, and is a chance to share with the youngsters some of the skills of our older generations. Skills that in those days were simply
needed to get through a normal day in the bush. The 2011 King of the Ranges looks to be bigger and better, with a final for the juniors on the cards and the possibility
of more skills challenges for the competitors. Mark it on your calendar and plan a trip to Murrurundi, if you
appreciate good horsemanship and these true Aussie bush skills, then don’t miss it – you won’t be disappointed.

For more information visit www.kingoftheranges.com.au
THDM