A rural community embraces its diversity with a festival celebrating culture…and camels.
CLOSE YOUR EYES for a moment and listen. There’s the hum of a didgeridoo, splutter of a chainsaw, acoustic twang of Creedence Clearwater Revival and the shrill call of a bagpipe. “They’re quick out of the barriers today,” a race-caller spruiks, and then there’s a low animal sound you can’t quite place. Now take note of the smells – definitely something animal, motorbike fumes, spicy curry, freshly baked bread.
Confused? Now open your eyes. You’re face to face with a woolly-headed camel as it gurgles and groans, a race-caller is chasing yabbies, someone is performing a haka and two mad motorcyclists are preparing to enter a steel-meshed Globe of Death.
You’ve found yourself at the Tara Festival of Culture and Camel Races.
It’s hard to arrive at one word to encapsulate this festival, which is held every two years in the rural town of Tara on the Western Downs of southern Queensland. Madcap springs to mind; eclectic comes close; kaleidoscopic, perhaps. But, while the senses and vocabulary are reeling, it’s fair to say it’s one hell of a show.
Country strong
Tara is renowned for agricultural and pastoral activities, particularly prime hard-wheat production. It has a population of little more than 2000, fewer than half of whom live in town. In the 1980s some of the area’s agricultural land was subdivided into small rural acreages, or lifestyle blocks, leading to an influx of new residents – although it was nothing compared with festival time, when the population soars to 16,000.
Esta historia es de la edición July - August 2019 de Australian Geographic Magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición July - August 2019 de Australian Geographic Magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Loveday Internment Camp, SA A
DURING WORLD WAR II, civilians n Australia deemed \"enemy aliens\" - mostly those of German, Italian and Japanese descent were housed in internment camps.
THE STORYTELLERS OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF
More than 100 dedicated Master Reef Guides are sharing the GBR's most important stories with visitors in a bid to inspire its greater protection.
A BEAUTIFUL DISASTER
Does last summer's mass coral bleaching event sound a death knell for Australia's beloved Great Barrier Reef? \"Not on my watch!\" is the message coming from he army of heartbroken, but resolute, marine scientists who've responded to the crisis by doubling down on their research.
AROUND AUSTRALIA IN 44 DAYS
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first aerial circumnavigation of Australia. Aviator Michael Smith retraces the flight in his unique amphibious flying boat, Southern Sun, starting and finishing at RAAF Base Point Cook, on Melbourne's Port Phillip, taking in 15,000km of vast, diverse and stunning coastline in between.
CLEAR-CUTTING KOALA COUNTRY
More than 3000sq.km of forests on NSW's Mid North Coast have been earmarked for the Great Koala National Park. But there's still work to be done before this proposed reserve becomes the safe haven koalas desperately need.
MORE THAN QUOKKAS
Sure, you can't avoid those cute little marsupials that made Rottnest Island world-famous, but there's so much more to life on this ocean-ringed jewel off the Western Australian coast.
A WILD POLO TUSSLE
It's an event reminiscent of a Banjo Paterson poem. For 35 years, in the High Country 200km east of Melbourne, city polo players have gathered annually at Cobungra, Victoria's largest cattle station, to vie with a rural team for the Dinner Plain Polo Cup.
Ancient know-how meets a modern challenge
Contemporary marine park management is infused with traditional knowledge to tackle new threats on the Great Barrier Reef.
LOOKING FOR TJAKURA
The search is on across Australia's deserts for a culturally important vulnerable lizard.
RESCUING THE CHUDITCH
After intensive planning, recovery for this endangered marsupial species is being stepped up to secure its future.
