Good genetics and good friends are what Mount Isa's Mollie Gordon puts her win in Julia Creek's iconic Best Butts competition down to.
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Mollie and fellow Mount Isa resident Viddy Pahee won their illustrious titles on Saturday night to the loud acclaim of the big crowd in town for the north west town's annual Dirt n Dust Festival.
It's a competition judged on crowd participation, and Mollie and Viddy both said their wins came about thanks to having the loudest friends in the audience, egged on by MC Justin Vardy and drumrolls from the band.
"Seriously, I don't have Australia's best butt," Viddy said. "It's just that my friends and work mates could yell and cheer the loudest."
Like many in the Isa, he and Mollie and their friends like to support whatever social occasion is on in the north west so they just jumped in the car on Friday afternoon with no thoughts of taking home a sash.
The fun competition began 20 years ago as a filler when organisers needed to fill in time, thanks to a black-out, and it's gone from strength to strength since then.
"We've had great feedback - we feel we're really on track this year, and looking forward to next year already," she said.
The packed weekend kicked off on Friday night with the saddle bronc side of the rodeo, when 1400 came through the gate, rocking on to Zac & George, Route 33 and Dee Jay Bux until 1am.
Cloncurry's Mitch Lansdowne won the purse on the night, with Robbie Berryman, Charters Towers in second place and Callam Clement, Clermont third.
Attendance numbers blew out to 2000 people on Saturday night, after a huge day of rolling in the mud and practising belly rolls at the races.
A boggy adventure run, complete with commando-style obstacles and a swim in Julia Creek, has replaced the Dirt n Dust triathlon and doubled its numbers this year, cementing its popularity.
Kids could tackle either a 1km or a 5km course for the first time, some matching the adults feeling dusty on the 5km run.
Toby Wicks and Kimberly Alcorn conquered the three laps of the wildest obstacle course the north west has ever seen, taking out the 15km male and female events, with times of 1.28:19 and 1.31:05 respectively.
In the 10km section, Tom Cureton smashed all before him to record a time of 1.02:19 for the mens, while Shanelle Flute was the women's winner with a time of 1.17:32.
"We had 180 entries this year," Sheree said. "It was huge."
Just as big was the open bull ride, where Sarina's Toby Hale walked away richer, taking the points from Brumby Brandenburg of Clermont.
Beau Willis, Bowen, took out third place and Bryn Francis was up from the Southern Downs to claim fourth.
"Together with the racing, there was something for everyone," Sheree said. "We're not likely to extend ourselves any further - we're a fully volunteer base - but we've got a great formula to build on for next year."
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
