There were thrills and spills galore once the competitors hit the grounds. We were astonished by the size of some of the kids who were competing….seems to be in their blood. All the animals look a bit crazed with the red-eye effect from all the spotlights. Loved the addition of the new big screen replays.
There’s a lot of blurred and fuzzy photos here but I’m going to call them action shots rather than duds.
Darwin is one of the few places where you’ll see teenage ringers with their swags, tight jeans and RM Williams boots, with the occasional silver buckle thrown in.

A new form of Aussie motor?
Ears pinned back and “hair on fire”.
I loved how the girls wore their girly shirts and their horses had sparkly reins.
Great action shots! Is that a girl roping in the first photo? The rodeo I attended decades ago, women only did barrel racing.
The first photo is roping but not bringing them down -they just had to get the rope on in a fixed time. Some of these professional competitors also compete in the US. Later in the evening they did barrel racing and it was surprising how young some of them were.
Don’t think the girls do bull-riding… though our eldest was asked to ride a supposedly tame bull at a rodeo she was covering when she was a TV journalist….whether it was her favourite cherry red top or it was just ornery, the bull took off with her, dumping her on her elbow to the horror of the rodeo clowns. Being good professionals the cameraman caught the action for the TV news and she waved to the crowd – the outcome was she has a permanently damaged elbow with significantly reduced rotation as a result. She also lost the cherry red top as it had to be cut off her arm. But she gained a good life story 🙂
ouch! That sounds horrible. Yes, good story but I think I’d rather have full use of the elbow.
Suspect she would too, and not the ongoing arthritis as well.
of course the rodeo I attended was in Texas, not Australia!