The population of a tiny town six hours south of Darwin has jumped to the thousands for a weekend of horse and bull riding. The Daly Waters camp draft and rodeo heralds the start of the Top End's dry season and draws people from across the Northern Territory and Australia.
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00:00A bush sport, putting rider and horse to the test.
00:07He's good, he just gives you honest run every time, you know.
00:11In camp drafting, riders cut out cattle from a herd
00:14and guide them around obstacles.
00:20The champions can take home some big prizes,
00:23but it's not always about the money.
00:26Ticked off one of my main bucket lists
00:28and won the open at Daily Waters. How good's that?
00:32For many of the ringers here, this is their first social event
00:35after months of working at their stations.
00:38It's good to see faces other than the same six people you see every day.
00:41And then, yeah, just have a little party.
00:44Everyone muck around with some horses.
00:46Excitement is in the air here at Daily Waters
00:49for the very first camp draft and rodeo of the dry season.
00:53Now, more than a thousand people have signed up for camp drafting here,
00:57and it just shows just how popular the sport is becoming,
01:01not just in the territory, but across Australia.
01:04There's kids that are probably flat out walking, they're competing
01:07and right down to, you know, 60-odd-year-old fellas
01:11right mixing it with the young fellas, you know.
01:13It's something you can... that age is not such a barrier.
01:16Do you like going really fast?
01:18Yeah, sometimes.
01:20As the sport grows, the quality of the competition is increasing too.
01:26The ringers used to come in on pretty ordinary horses
01:29and now the stations have really stepped it up
01:31and they all have quite a good horse each now, which is great to see.
01:36After sunset, it's time for the bull riding,
01:41with plenty of narrow escapes.
01:46A sport not for the faint-hearted.