Friday 17th January to Sunday 26th January – Tamworth

Since our visit to Tamworth coincided with the Country Music Festival week, and it turned out to be absolutely huge, we decided that we should dedicate a whole page of our website to cover it, and include some nice pictures as well.

We had set up camp on Thursday on the banks of the Peel River, in a designated “No Camping” area right near the Oxley Highway Bridge, meaning that we were literally a hundred odd metres from Peel Street (where all the action happens).  The Council had even been gracious enough to allow us private use of the touch football shower and toilet facilities for the duration of our stay – which was fantastic.

Our first job on Friday morning was to head back out to the holding paddocks and move the cattle from there up to the sale yards. It was a bitter-sweet time as the cattle had been doing so well, grazing along the sides of the road, and now it was time to sell them all, due to the drought and the deteriorating conditions on our route further south. Dan, Col and Ian, who had all spent a majority of time behind the cattle, were excited to see the thinnest of the donated cattle picking up each day, and it would be a shame not to see a couple of the poorest ones actually become fat!

The media came to cover the final stages of the cattle drive into the yards, with Dan and Ian being interviewed for the evening news report. Ian’s horse “Chevy” decided to contribute to the “out-takes” by taking a leak right in the middle of the interview!

Not only was it the last day with the cattle, it was also the last riding day with a couple of our longest serving guests, Rose Reading and Jan Cluff. They were in for a special treat, as Catriona had organised Bud Hyem to bring her horse Tic Toc across from Carroll (near Gunnedah) to ride in with us.  Matt Ryan rode Tic Toc to a gold medal in the Three Day Event at the 1992 Olympics.  Tic Toc is 23 years young and now retired, although Bud still takes him out of the paddock for some stock work now and then.

Rose and Jan are champion people, and were a marvellous help over the past few weeks, and shaking the donation bucket at passing motorists.  It was fitting that they grab a photo with other champions (Bud and Tic Toc) once the cattle had reached the yards in Tamworth.
Once the cattle were safely delivered to the yards, most of the riders headed back to the paddock that the horses would be grazing in for the majority of the next ten days. Dan, Col and Caroline stayed behind at the yards to take care of the pre-sale paperwork and drafting of the cattle into pens.

There was a good turn out at the sales and the market was comparatively strong compared to more recent yardings, so the outcome of the sale was very good, raising some $11,000.00 toward our total. This amount was realised as the agents sold the cattle without taking commission.

Bruce and Dale and Lucas had set up the stall in Peel Street, and although it was a little quiet in town there was a good amount of passers-by at this early stage.  Jenny was very busy at the Council Offices in the afternoon getting just over 40 works of art displayed in the foyer. A number of Australian Artists had contributed works to our planned auction, and entries included original oils, watercolours and sculpture, along with limited edition prints and books. The auction was scheduled for 5.00pm, Thursday at the Telstra Country Wide Marquee.

Each of the crew were allocated the contact details of two or more hotels, that would become the designated fund raising locations for each member of the crew to attend to. Jenny, Yola and John had been busy on the ground in Tamworth for the best part of a fortnight before the rest of the team’s arrival, so all the pubs were organised and expecting us.  Friday was a good night for all, as the hotels are getting quite busy and a fair amount of visitors were already in town to grab the best accommodation, and the best tickets for upcoming shows. After a late night raising money in the hotels and taverns, everyone was happy with the money raised for the first day.  Lucas and Dan raised $1000.00 just by shaking the bucket at their hotels.

Saturday was a very busy day again.  Col and Liz made a flying trip back to Albury, as there was a family illness at home.

The stall was set up to run all day, as it did right through until Sunday 26th January. We had to shut the stall down early today though, as a major function has been organised by Jenny at the Golden Guitar next to the Longyard Hotel.

The list of celebrities coming to help out was excellent, with Melinda Schneider (voted Best Female Vocalist at this year’s awards), Felicity, Brendan Walmsley, Travis Sinclair, Southbound, The Toe Sucking Cowgirls, Adam Kilpatrick, Ann Conway, Cristy Davis and others lending their support our event.

Many people arrived early to catch the action, and with entry by a $5.00 donation, it was an excellent opportunity for people to see some truly great performers up close and accoustic.  The stage was set up on the tailgates at the back of John Williams’ and Dan’s trucks, and although it was only a small area, everyone managed to fit themselves and gear on there admirably.

The evening kicked off at around 7.00pm with Dan and then Felicity doing a couple of numbers before heading off to do another show.
It was then a smooth flowing program right through the evening, with crowd favourites being Brendon Walmsley, Southbound and the Toe Sucking Cowgirls. The final performance of the night was by Adam Kilpatrick at around 11.00pm.  Adam is a real character and has a reputation for some clever impersonations of other leading country music personalities.

Sunday was a little quieter day, as the Country Music Festival took a quick breather before kicking off in earnest on Monday.  The crew spent the day taking turns on the stall and taking merchandise and raffle prizes to their respective hotels and venues. All of the performers at the different venues were really supportive of our cause and gave us excellent promotion and the opportunity to get up on stage with them to say a few words and draw winning tickets from our raffles.

On Monday, Ian and Bek had a great experience in the K-Mart building with Korey Livy. He invited Ian onto the stage to talk about the ride after he had received a huge  response from people in the audience about his performance. When he asked if anyone had heard about Akta-Vite Campfires Against Cancer ride, he received an almost unanimous “Yes!” from the gathered crowd!

Travis Sinclair was excellent, with many of his fans from down south coming to his shows at the City Tavern Hotel. Many of these fans said that they will be in Albury for the big concert on 5th April, where Travis will be performing again.

During the week of the Country Music Festival, our marquee out front of the Tamworth City Council was the site of many live performances, the first of which was Sara Storer at 10.00am on Monday morning.  Sara sang a few of the crowd’s favourites,
but had to compete with the noise made by a German Folk Duo across the street. They were so loud that the Environmental Protection Authority shut them down later in the day for exceeding the 85 decibel limit on successive measurements!

In addition to Sara, Travis Sinclair, Meggan Carswell, Korey Livy, Adam Kilpatrick, Martin Oakes and Dan all took a turn (or two!) at performing at our Peel Street marquee during the week. Each took time out from their busy schedules to stop by and do a few numbers.

Dan had a busy gig schedule to attend to in addition to all the fundraising activities that required his attention.  Over the course of the week he did spots at The Vault, Grace Bros. and the Tamworth Hotel.  It was here that he ran into Cassie from Longreach, who had been performing the same night as Dan at the Central Hotel back when the team was passing through Longreach!

Another amazing thing to come out of the week was the number of people in Tamworth that we had met somewhere along the track from Darwin.  We met couples that had seen us leaving Darwin, stationhands that had seen us in Katherine, and others that had seen us “just back up the road” in Queensland. Our friends John and Kath Hickey, from Barraba, even bought tickets for the Albury Home Coming Concert in April.

A number of people also visited from down in Albury.  Dan’s Mum, along with another nine friends and relations, including some of Dan’s aunt’s, arrived by bus.  Dan’s sister Bonnie and her friend Amanda flew up for a couple of days, and several of Dan’s old schoolmates arrived by car to take in some of the festival as well. Lucas’ brother Pete was one of these blokes, and had a double reason to come to Tamworth, as it was Lucas’ birthday on the 23rd of January.

Luke had a pretty good birthday celebration in the reserved upstairs area at the Tudor Hotel, with most of the team and a host of friends helping him celebrate the occasion of his 22nd year in style.

The James’ also found some relations in and around Tamworth. The first was Dale’s Cousin Barry, and family, who found them after seeing a news story on the television, and then Bruce’ cousins daughter, Katrina, who bumped into Ian purely by accident whilst he was out fundraising.   Katrina and her family come from Cowra and there should be a crowd of cousins waiting to say g’day when the team gets down to that neck of the woods.

Our Art Auction on Thursday evening looked like being a tremendous success, with a good number of people looking at the artwork during the week whilst it was on display in the city centre. A good number turned out to see the items go under the hammer in the Telstra Marquee in Bicentennial Park, and the one and only Adam Harvey was on hand to sing a few songs to open the auction.  Unfortunately, there was a distinct lack of bidders for the items that were on display and only a handful of items were sold.  This was a little disappointing, however in light of what had already been a tremendous fundraising week, we could not afford to dwell on what might have been.

Col and Liz went out to the preliminary round of the Telstra Coutrywide Rodeo and were quickly stopped from doing too much fundraising at the venue.  They were limited to sitting at the stall, and were not allowed to move among the crowd selling merchandise, as they normally would do, so only about $400.00 was raised for the night.

Anne Conway, a country performer and two-time cancer survivor, offered to help out with her show at Grace Bros. on Friday afternoon. Dan sang a couple of numbers prior to Travis Sinclair going on stage, and Martin Oakes also lent a hand during the show as well.

Ian got a bit tired with walking and not having reasonable parking around town, so he scooted off to the motorcycle shop, selling two tickets in the Art Union on the way, and grabbing a bike from Garry at Ride! Motorcycles for five days at the hire rate of one carton for the hire, all in the space of fifteen minutes!

As the week drew toward Saturday, the awards night, it became more obvious that we had saturated Tamworth fairly well, with people saying that they had previously made donations, or stopping us in the street to ask about the ride and make a donation.

Our Art Union tickets also sold very well with nearly eight books sold for the week, and we are confident that the Art Union will be fully subscribed by the time the tickets are drawn on April 5th.

Saturday morning was a hive of activity, as the horses and vehicles had to be ready in the Cavalcade marshalling area very early this year. Because of the perceived terrorist threat, all vehicles were searched and observed prior up to two hours before the parade started. We saw a number of the stars before cavalcade, as they were participating in the early part of the parade, as we were.  We said g’day to Adam Brand, Adam Harvey, Meggan Carswell, Sara Storer and Brendon Walmsley appeared from nowhere to wish us the best with the rest of the ride (almost getting his foot squashed by Colin’s horse in the process), just before the parade kicked off.  The cavalcade was long and the sheer number of people lining the streets amazed us; the horses all performed flawlessly given the size of the parade and crowds.

Saturday night came around very quickly and we were all interested to learn who the winners of the awards were.  Dan, Caroline, Tim (Dan’s cousin) and his girlfriend Naomi, went to the awards and were really excited when Lee Kernaghan and Garth Porter scored a Golden Guitar for Best Album (Electric Rodeo) and Travis Sinclair won Best New Talent. Artists from the “Trail of Dreams” CD received a total of 24 nominations resulting in five awards, including the two previously mentioned plus Melinda Schneider (Best Female Vocalist), Lee Kernaghan (Highest Selling Album) and Adam Brand (Best Heritage Song).

Dan, Caroline, Tim and Naomi returned from the awards and headed toward bed, but Korey Livy had different ideas.  Martin Oakes had earlier in the day told Dan to say goodbye on his behalf if he caught up with Garth Porter before he too went home. So when Korey made the suggestion, Dan and he headed down to the “After-Award Party” in search of Catherine Britt’s signature for the commemorative stockwhip.  What happened next was like a movie.

Korey was trying to get Dan in past security, however unbeknownst to him, Dan had been recognised by a security staffer and given access. Dan had found Garth Porter (who was surprised and excited to see Dan) before Korey realised that Dan had already gained access to the function.  It turned out that Catherine had already left, so Garth suggested that they attend a private party at another motel to get the necessary signatures.

Dan declined the offer, but left the stockwhip with Garth, so that he could get the signatures in the stockwhip case. Dan headed back to camp and was getting into bed when a message arrived on his mobile. It was Garth saying “Dan, I am standing beside this bloke and he wants to sign the whip case, but it has got a padlock on it. Ohh… it’s John Williamson… so you better get your a** here as quick as you can!”  Dan needed no second invitation and was soon chatting to none other than John Williamson, Troy Cassar-Daly, Sara Storer, Paul Kelly and Melinda Schneider, as well as a host of other country music producers and industry movers and shakers. All this courtesy of Campfires’ great friend – Garth Porter!

After the excitement of Saturday night, Sunday came as another busy day at the stall in Peel Street.  A few preparations were made for departure on Monday, with Bruce ensuring the horses feet were all shipshape and much of the borrowed equipment returned where possible.

All in all, it was a great ten days in Tamworth, which resulted in a total amount raised (including the cattle sales) well in excess of $50,000.00! It was a great opportunity to see and hear some of the country music greats, as well as meet quite a few of the rising and established stars.

Thank you so much to everyone who shared a moment with us in Tamworth, it will certainly go down as one of the highlights of the ride.