Charleville Camel, Donkey, & Yabbie Festival: Australia

Charleville Camel, Donkey, & Yabbie Festival

If you want to experience the true Australian outback culture, then visiting Charleville in August should enlighten you on the ’aussie outbacker’ and why there is a guy called ’Crocodile Dundee’.

The festival kicks off with the annual Bush Ball, a night of beer drinking, bbqs, Country & Western singing, and perhaps a little bit of Ray Cyrus & line dancing to get the evening going. I have no idea of the attire for this ball, but let’s just try and imagine tuxedos & ballgowns around a campfire.

The Camel Racing begins the next day, with many revellers surfacing later in the day due to the Bush Ball the night before.

Camels are tempermental animals, and they do not understand the concept of racing. During the race, some camels may lay down and take a nap, some may stroll, and some might even run - if you are really lucky. If the camel you bet on doesn’t perform too well, (perhaps he is taking a nap), you can get just as much enjoyment from watching the chaos.

During the festival you can participate in the constant bbqs and beer drinking, which Aussies are typically renowed for being experts at. After a few beers with a guy called ’Steve, the Crocodile Hunter’ you may find you have the ability to ride a Donkey.

The Donkey Races - not as expertise as the Camel Races, are open to the public to be jockeys. As you can possibly imagine, a few beers, a few donkeys.. whey-hay.. you are have suddenly become ’bare back, bucking donkey rider Billy’.

And after all of that excitement with a little more Country Western singing thrown in, it’s time for the Yabbie Races.

Yabbies are small animals with a hardshell encrusted body. They have a fish like tail which curls under their body which propels them through water, making the Yabbie ideal for aquatic life, but not land.

The racing track for the Yabbies is a circular piece of canvas, about 3 metres in diameter. A circle is marked in the middle of the canvas, this is the start line, and the Yabbies must race to the edge of the canvas to win.

Before the race, the Yabbies are autioned off, named, and labelled with numbers for idenitication. The owner of the Yabbie is eligable for the prize-money if his Yabbie wins the race.

The Yabbie Race begins. Despite the shouts & obscenities from the audience to their Yabbies, no encouragement can help the poor Yabbie, as Yabbies are also deaf. In their disorientated state, the Yabbies are likely to just curl up and sleep, making this a race not for the impatient.

However long it takes, the Yabbie race does eventually end, and a winner is announced, and another batch of Yabbies are bought out on display for the next race. At the end of the Yabbie Races, all Yabbies (regardless whether they are a winner or loser) are thrown on the bbq.

If you are not exhausted by the end of the two days of outbacker culture, on the last night of the festival there’s the Bull Riding competition, and another Country & Western concert where you can show off your best line-dancing moves, and wear your favourite cowboy hat & spurs.