The Ekka was abuzz on Wednesday when hundreds of guests gathered for the inaugural City and Country Raising Big Bucks event.
With a star studded line-up of guest speakers, the charity luncheon was followed by a spectacular invitational bull ride, right on center ring of the Brisbane showgrounds.
The event aimed to raise funds for the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation which has a goal to conduct a world-first cell transplantation and rehabilitation human clinical trial.
The foundation needs another $8 million to gets the trials underway.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was among the special guests and received warm applause when she announced the Queensland Government would commit an extra $2 million to the trials.
With raffles, a charity auction and a calcutta on the bull riders, an incredible $255,000 was raised just during the luncheon. This was generously matched dollar for dollar by mining and agricultural businessman, Twiggy Forrest.
The event was largely driven by Marcus and Shelley Curr from Yelvertoft Station north of Mount Isa.
The Curr family became involved with the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation two years ago when their daughter Georgia Curr, 21, suffered a spinal cord injury on their remote property.
In 2021, just before her 20th birthday, Georgia was working at home on her family's cattle station near Julia Creek in north-west Queensland when she had a sudden bleed in her spinal cord, resulting in her becoming a T6 paraplegic.
She was diagnosed with a rare condition called Spinal arteriovenous malformation (AVM) which is a tangle of blood vessels that causes the blood flow inside the spinal cord to be altered.
Mrs Curr said the idea for this event was for the bush and the city to come together to raise vital funds for the Spinal Injury Project at Griffith University in partnership with the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation.
Mr Cross attended the luncheon, thanking all those present for their support.
"Today the bush has come to the city for this unique event to raise vital funds for spinal cord injury research," he said.
"Because of the generous support of people like you, the foundation is on the cusp of making history and changing the lives of people with paralysis across the globe."
Under the superb guidance of emcee Ben Dobbin, the lunch included some fantastic guest speakers including NRL super coach Wayne Bennett AM, former Wallabies coach John "Knuckles" Connolly who also suffered a spinal cord injury and Australian commando Matt Cardinaels.
