Round-Australia Horse Ride was an epic event
By Liz Rivers
It’s a tale of Olympic proportions – the outback hero trekking thousands of kilometres across searing deserts, over snow-capped mountains and along lonely country tracks to deliver a message. It has parallels with the Ancient Greek legend of Phidippides’ mammoth 26-mile run from the town of Marathon to Athens to post a bulletin – a warning that the Persian army was on the march. But the message Neville Holts delivered to Lord Mayor Frank Sartor on the steps of Sydney Town Hall early last month was not menacing. He simply wanted to let us know that we have been neglectful of a great Aussie hero – the humble stockhorse. And the event Neville designed to tell us about our indifference was nothing short of spectacular. Together with 33 other riders, he spent five months crossing Australia on horseback as part of the Spring Valley Heritage Ride. They started in Broome in teeming rain in April and ended in Sydney in soft drizzle – half the riders taking a northern route through Darwin to finish after trotting over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, while the remainder went south to cross the Nullarbor and the Australian Alps. “It has been a wonderful adventure and we’ve achieved what we set out to do,” said Neville. In scenes reminiscent of the emotion the Olympic Torch Relay has evoked, the riders were greeted with cheers and ceremony at every town on route. Neville said the welcome offered by Canberra was overwhelming, where an official ceremony was held at the War Memorial to pay tribute to the felled soldiers, and their horses, who aided our victory in two World Wars. More than 100 local riders joined a procession from Lake Burley Griffin. But the most memorable event, according to Neville, was at the “one horse town” of Fowlers Bay in South Australia, where a population of 14 swelled ten times to greet the Aussie legends. “People came from a hundred kilometres in every direction to greet us. The school only has seven children – it’s the smallest in Australia, but they paraded alongside us with a makeshift Olympic Torch as we made our way into town,” said Neville. The northern team had their brush with Olympic fame as well, riding into Longreach in Queensland on the same day as the Olympic Torch passed through the town. But what made the odyssey even more incredible was that the promotion generated from this five-month-long event surpassed even the organisers’ wildest dreams – and without the aid of a PR, event or marketing company! It begs the question: How? Planning started six years ago when Sydney was announced as the Olympic city for 2000. Two years ago Spring Valley came on board as the sponsors – offering funds, support riders and practical support. Then last year Neville and his wife Lynette embarked on a preliminary circumnavigation of Australia, meeting with hundreds of country folk and polocrosse enthusiasts and asking for their assistance. The response was exceptional, with people in every region taking up the challenge to organise welcoming events and alert media. Then came more than 18 months of planning. Each team had a support crew of more than 12 people who looked after every aspect of the ride from food, campsites and first aid to local Government liaison. “I believe the event was also successful because we gave a lot and asked for nothing,” said Neville, who has personally handed out hundreds of free showbags to children in schools across the country. The riding teams also gave talks wherever possible, explaining the part played by the stockhorse throughout colonial history. Each evening the riders invited locals to join them for campfire yarns and fair-dinkum tucker. Barbeques were fired up and friendships blossomed. “That was a big part of our success – the event was inclusive and we made everybody feel comfortable. The event was also successful because we were not asking for money, it was not competitive and we added to each community we visited. For example, we gave a framed message to every town,” he said. Renowned artist Peter J. Hill also joined the ride for a couple of months to gain inspiration for a collection of paintings depicting the adventure, called the “Spirit that Built a Nation” collection. The paintings were auctioned at a celebration dinner in Sydney. Like Neville, Peter is passionate about horses and mentioned a few times that the ride, while important in its own right, was created to promote the five-day Stockhorse and Polocrosse National Championships in mid-August. Neville said the championships were a tremendous success – and from a professional’s perspective fitted the event “PIE formula” of equal parts of Participation, Information and Entertainment. There were competitions, polocrosse games, bush food, concerts, a rodeo – even Banjo Patterson and Ned Kelly made celebrity appearances. And of course there was an exhibition of Peter’s paintings. However, for me the highlight of the Championships was the confused sheep dog trials. Feathers flew as border collies and their owners put years of training into practice in herding a few flustered ducks into a tiny pen. What was that they say about old dogs and new tricks?
A selection of the collection of paintings called the
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