In this the Year of the Outback, what better way to celebrate than to have a historical cattle drive full of fun and adventure! The Harry Redford Cattle Drive left from Aramac Shire in Queensland on Sunday 19 May.
The three month journey will make its way through nine Shires including Aramac, Muttaburra, Longreach, Stonehenge, Junda, Windorah, Charleville, Morvan, Mitchell and conclude in Roma in August. The 600 head of cattle drive is based around the adventures of Harry Redford. Popularly known as Captain Starlight, Harry Redford became notorious in the Aramac District for stealing 1,000 head of cattle in 1870 from Bowen Downs, the first pastoral lease in the area.
Aramac Shire took the lead in coordinating the eight other Shires to create a program of 11 festival events to support the cattle drive. A three day festival was held at Aramac to launch the cattle drive. Celebrations included an agricultural festival and a huge country music spectacular, which included performers such as Daryl Braithwaite, James Reyne and Feral Swing Katz.
“It represents the process of community revitalisation where the regions have joined together, looked at what makes the people who live there so unique and special, and formulated a plan to work together and create a future for the area,” said Bruce Campbell, founder and chairman of 2002 Australia’s Year of the Outback. “The Aramac community acknowledges that it is important to show the outback as a united force and to demonstrate to city people that there is a continuity of people proud to be living and working in regional and rural areas.”
