BRYANA McNamara, a 15-year-old Ravenshoe High School student has won the prestigious title of FNQ Champion Junior Parader for 2013.
She will now go on to represent the Far North at the State Finals for Junior Paraders in the Over 15 years and under 25 years category at the Royal Brisbane Exhibition which gets underway today.
Coming from a non-farming background, Bryana has been showing cattle since she was 12 years old.
What originally sparked her interest is that one day she went to watch her brother Logan and as a result, then thought that she’d give it a try.
Since then she has never looked back and in a short period of time, has had a meteoric rise to now competing at State Level.
In what was ferocious competition, Bryana participated at the recent Tully Show and came first out of approximately 10 competitors.
She went on to win the next round which was for the title of Overall Tully Parader.
Continuing her winning streak, she again went on to win the Regionals for the title of FNQ Champion Junior Parader.
Students from Tully, Malanda, Atherton, and Ravenshoe as well as other entries that were not entered through schools also competed for the coveted title.
At ‘Beef Australia’ in Rockhampton last year, she placed in the top 12 for commercial/prime judging.
When asked what she likes most about showing Bryana commented that she personally finds it very rewarding and considers it to be fun and very enjoyable.
“It gives me opportunities to meet people from beef cattle studs and to make contacts with them, as well as being able to make industry contacts,” she said.
Whilst competing at shows she also likes to meet fellow competitors from other schools.
Two aspects of competing that Bryana finds to be particularly valuable is that it further develops her confidence for speaking in public and that she gets to meet new people all the time which she really enjoys.
She competed in the Malanda, Atherton, Cairns and Tully Shows this year and also exhibited beef cattle at the Mareeba Rodeo.
At this stage Bryana wishes to give herself flexibility in her career options and a potential future in any of the livestock industries is definitely one of them
Bryana thanked Mo and Charleene Pedersen for all their dedication which she said has enabled her to get to this level. She also thanked Peter Bauer and Julie Brotherton for the opportunity to lead Warrina Xplode.
