Rouchel Bushman’s Carnival Back on the Map

THE Rouchel Bushman’s Carnival was back in the saddle on the weekend, following a two year hiatus due to weather, with more than 150 competitors making their way to the iconic campdraft.

Andrew Chapman from Nundle took top prize, with his 16 year old daughter Charlotte winning the juvenile division.

Placegetters in the Rob Clysdale Memorial Open Campdraft at Rouchel: L-R: Cut out winner Allan Young on Liberty Silver, 5th David Andrews on Centrefold, 3rd/4th Chloe Atfield, 3rd/4th Rebecca Roberts on Duckreygeous, 2nd James Keyte on Two Step and 1st Andrew Chapman on Digby. Members of the Clysdale family: Michael Clysdale, Suzanne Andrews and Grahame Clydsdale.

Andrew said campdraft was a sport his whole family loved and this weekend was special to win with his daughter.

“It’s just something I’ve always been passionate about and my family are now doing it as well so it’s a great family sport, we just love working horse and stock and it’s part of our job here at Nundle where we run a bull stud and cattle, so it just all ties in,” said Mr Chapman.

“My youngest daughter she won the juvenile campdraft on the weekend, it was pretty special for her to win the juvenile and for me to win the open,” he said.

“There were some very good competitors there, mainly from the Hunter zone and the competition was quite tough, no campdraft you go to these days is an easy win, you need to be on your A game to get a win,” he said.

Andrew, who is president of the Nundle Campdraft which has been cancelled this year due to the lack of cattle and the dry, said he appreciated the effort a community needs to put into these events and the atmosphere is always great.

“It’s the atmosphere of the events, they are great little communities putting these events on and it is great,” he said.

“It’s great for them to be able to raise money for the local charities, for local schools and things they need, it’s just a great sense of community,” he said.

“I’d like to thank the Rouchel committee and the sponsors for Rouchel and the Hunter zone, all of the cattle donors, because we understand how trying it is to get cattle in this time,” said Andrew Chapman.