Bullocks beat horses for pulling power

The Barellan Working Clydesdales and Heavy Horses Good Old Days Weekend is a huge event that attracts large crowds.

Last year the draught horse competitors put a team of 20 horses together to pull a cart full of wool bales.

Well-known local bullock driver Ron McKinnon of Tomerong enlisted local mates Geoff Cochrane of Pyree, Josh Stannard of Sussex Inlet and Geoff Lloyd of Springbank to come up with a team of 24 bullocks, upstaging the Clydesdales that only had a team of 20.

They made a stunning sight, 36 metres long, as they pulled a five-metre wagon that carried five to six tonnes of wool – all driven by one man.

“It made for a pretty spectacular site,” Mr McKinnon said.

“The Clydesdales with 20 horses looked pretty good but we showed them up with the bullocks.”

Barellan is a small town in Narrandera Shire in the Riverina, east of Griffith. Mr McKinnon and his mates made the round trip of around 1200km in two trucks.

It was rare to have seven bullockies (people who work with bullocks) in the one place at the one time.

“There are only about 10 or so people nationwide working with bullocks, so to have seven of them at the one event was fantastic,” Mr McKinnon said.

Along with the four locals, there was Philip Thompson and Rohan Morris, of Queensland and Brian Fish from Tasmania.

“All the guys came together to help. It was great,” he said.

“We have really been accepted as part of the weekend’s activities.

“And we have been invited back again next year and that will be the fourth time we will have made the trek west.”

There was also a competition for the bullock team drivers, who could be the most accurate through an obstacle course while driving two bullocks, which was won by Geoff Cochrane.

“It is the only place in Australia that has a competition for bullocks,” Mr McKinnon said.

“It’s just two days of great fun.”

“It was a wonderful weekend, there were 3000 spectators there on the Saturday alone,” Mr Cochrane said.

“The draught horse guys made a statement last year and we thought we could upstage that.”

As well as the heavy horse events and judging, there were demonstrations throughout the weekend, including hand milking cows, with the milk then progressing through the process of going through butter churns to make butter.

There were also hand shearing demonstrations and working horse demonstrations with old farm machinery through to poetry readings.

The local team was also joined on the journey by a film crew from ABC’s Landline, who are producing a story on Mr McKinnon.

As well as taking in the Barellan competition they also journeyed back to Wagga where a local forged all the steel components for a bullock yoke from scratch.

The film crew will be in the Shoalhaven next February to capture Mr McKinnon and his team working in the local bush.