Winton to Longreach endurance ride returning to celebrate CWA centenary

While the multi-day endurance ride ran for nine years between 1980 and 1988 to promote and fundraise for the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame, still to be constructed at the time, this time around it's in aid of the centenary of the QCWA.

The CWA's central west division encompasses the route the 250km ride took and divisional president Lyndall Harriman said because the organisation had endured for 100 years, an endurance ride in outback Queensland was a good way to mark that.

A lot has changed in the meantime - a national park has been created, stations don't have lots of staff anymore, what was once the DPI doesn't have a fleet of vets to offer assistance these days - but organisers are hearing an excited buzz around being part of something that has icon status.

One of those helping with the planning as well as preparing a horse and her body for the July 29-30 marathon is Longreach's Laura Axsentieff, who has completed a 160km ride prior to this, which she found very challenging.

"This will be the longest ride for myself and many others," she said. "People have done 320km marathons but they've been 80km a day for four days."

The route for the 2023 event will be 30km shorter than the original 250km because Bladensberg National Park has been created on Winton's outskirts, which horses are no longer able to traverse.

But being the only travelling ride in Australia, meaning every checkpoint is at a different place, rather than following a cloverleaf course with a base camp, is what provides one of the extra challenges.

"We'll set off at midnight and our support crew packs up all the gear - horse feed, strapping, human food - and takes it down to the first vet check, and so on," Laura said. "Back in the day, when the roads were really terrible, riders were beating their strappers into the checkpoint, but the stock route's in great condition these days."

She said it was exciting both to be competing in and to be organising something so iconic.

"There are so many stories about the dramas and the highlights - smashing ice off water buckets at midnight - that I want to experience," she said.

One of those who competed twice and who has plenty of stories is Longreach's Elizabeth Clark, who was one of many who didn't finish the inaugural ride, before coming in sixth, accompanied by husband Peter in seventh, in 1981.

"I can tell you how to get lost," she said. "You think because you're a local you know everything so instead of doing 30km, I did 60."

She said most horses being entered back then were Arabs or Quarter Horses, and she wanted to put her thoroughbred up against them.

"The most enjoyable part was conditioning the horses to get ready for the ride," she said. "Our property was never looked after so well - we were always riding out to check waters."

On the other hand, the psychological side was the major hurdle, for rider and horse.

"Quite often you're riding on your own, and when you come over a rise and there's 50km of nothing in front of you, you can feel your horse sigh," Elizabeth said.

One of the many organisational volunteers after she retired from competing, she hopes the wider community will join together to support such a massive undertaking, especially in the face of the large rural workforce decline of the past 40 years.

Lyndall Harriman said they had managed to source a workforce from the grey nomad community to man the 24 gates along the route, and the Queensland Endurance Riders Association would be handling chief stewards, vets, timekeepers and the marking of the track.

"We are in charge of the financial side and sourcing sponsorship, and there's a lot to pay for these days," she said.

As well as the cost of vets, a service that was originally donated, lighting towers are needed, along with portable toilets at each checkpoint, and prizemoney.

Even at Maneroo, the overnight stop, the shearing shed remains, but the quarters and ablutions have gone.

Some money will be saved by finishing at the Longreach showgrounds rather than riding along the highway to the Stockman's Hall of Fame, and the road closures and police escorts that would entail.

One of the new additions this time round is a 42km ride in from Maneroo on the second day, which Laura said catered to the many locals who weren't able to commit to the qualifying process, or who didn't have the funds to travel to qualifying events.

"Most people would do 40km mustering in a day, and they've got five hours to do it - it's sparked a lot of interest," she said.

After changing their date twice to avoid clashes with local shows, the Australian Endurance Riders Association's gold standard event, the 160km Tom Quilty Gold Cup was allocated to Imbil in southern Queensland this year, and will be taking place six weeks before the western Queensland event.

Winton to Longreach organisers aren't sure how that will impact them but say they've had a lot of interest regardless.

"I have friends coming from Tully, New Zealand and Murgon as my support crew, and I know of one lady who's coming from Tasmania with horses," Laura said.

"Back in the day, people took 15 to 17 hours riding time to complete the course - I'm not sure what it would be now."

Any proceeds from the historic ride will be going towards the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Angel Flight.

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