Campdrafters say goodbye to Tailem Bend, hello to Coonalpyn

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Come 2026, the Murraylands’ campdrafting community hopes to get back in the saddle at last.

Three years have passed since Tailem Bend’s Hancock Park last hosted a campdraft, a uniquely Australian equestrian event.

Unfortunately, as the result of a dispute between the River Murray and Fleurieu Campdraft Clubs and the owner of the property, the event will not return to that venue.

But Tailem Bend’s loss will be Coonalpyn’s gain.

The town’s A&H society will host both campdraft clubs at Coonalpyn Showground from now on.

On Saturday, volunteers descended on the former arena and stockyards on Westbrook Road at Tailem to pull out fencing, sheds, tanks and any other fixtures able to be removed.

By truck and ute they were hauled down the Dukes Highway, ready to be set up at a later date.

They finished up just as the rain started pouring down.

It was a shame it had come to this, club president Rod McKenzie suggested, particularly given how many people had donated to the clubs to build up the facilities at Tailem over the past nine years.

But it was exciting to think that they would now be able to move forward.

The clubs looked at a site on Murray Bridge’s east side and considered setting up behind Tailem Bend’s footy oval, too, but ultimately settled on Coonalpyn as the ideal destination.

“We’re going to use the oval (at the showgrounds) and out the back a bit, set up the portable panels we’ve got from here, then slowly work to put it in permanently,” he said.

“They’ve been more than helpful down there, they’ve been unbelievable – community support is huge down there.”

Once an agreement with the show society is finalised, club members will come together for a series of working bees and training days.

Their aim will be to host a campdraft in late 2026.

What’s campdrafting about, anyway?

Campdrafting is an event in which competitors on horseback must cut one animal from a mob of cattle and herd it through a course: around a figure eight and through a gate.

The sport requires outstanding horsemanship, focus and split-second decision-making.

Club member Mauri Parry told Murray Bridge News last year that it tested all the same skills he had used since he started drafting bullocks in Queensland in the 1960s.

He compared it to a sheepdog trial, but with cattle and horses.

“It’s quite something to see,” he said.

“You start off in a camp – you’ve got seven cattle in a camp – and you get one out, take him out the front and show the judge what you can do.

“The horses, they go sideways at full tilt.

“When you’re on the horse, you’re focused, you’re watching the beast, you’re watching the horse, and as it goes, you go … it looks horrific from the sidelines, because it’s so quick, and like footballers, they’ll wrong-foot you.”

The clubs’ yards may hold hundreds of head of cattle on an event day.

Events usually start at dawn and might go all the way through to five or six o’clock.

• More information: Search for the River Murray Campdraft or Fleurieu Campdraft Club Inc on Facebook.