Twin Hills Race, Campdraft and Rodeo Mass 2019

On the 26^th to the 29^th September 2019, over 2000 people gathered on the Twin Hills Sporting Reserve, 128km NW of Clermont for the annual Race meeting, campdraft and rodeo. This event has been held on the venue since 1927, seasonal conditions permitting.

 With people camping for the duration, a real sense of community and camaraderie has long existed at Twin Hills. Being on a gidyea flat subject to periodic flooding from Mistake Creek has meant that any fixed camping facilities have remained basic but not so the hospitality. Dusty conditions are the norm, as any amount of moisture will turn the clay soils to glutinous mud. A few timely winter showers of rain this year also meant the Gidyea burr and “Bogan Flea” plants were in healthy profusion

 In the year 2000 amid some musing and disbelieving comments, it was decided to hold a Eucharistic celebration, a first time ever. As one person put it “I have seen many things at Twin Hills but I have never seen Mass there before”.

The then resident Clermont Parish priest, the late Fr Bruce Little, readily accepted the challenge though naturally with some trepidation, a feeling in common with the Mass organisers. However, the response of the crowd to the presence of a priest in the camp was overwhelmingly positive, seeing over 150 people in attendance, an even mix of young and old.

 Since then, Mass after the races on Saturday afternoon has been a feature with local families taking the opportunity to have their children baptised in a familiar and homely bush setting.  

This year Bishop Michael McCarthy, Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Rockhampton, which includes Twin Hills, was a special guest, camping and spending the weekend meeting and mixing with the people, plus experiencing for the first time the unique atmosphere of rodeo and camp-drafting. He was accompanied by Fr Matthias Ogwo from the Peak Downs Cluster of Parishes who was certainly overwhelmed by an event so different from his native Nigeria.

After the last race on Saturday in the Cassiopeia camp hosted by John, Zoe, Bart and Tegan Wilkinson, Bishop Michael celebrated the Eucharist before a gathering of 180 people sharing prayers for those severely affected by the current droughted seasons across Australia. The ceremony also included the Baptism of Peter Gordon John Salmond, son of John and Tessia Salmond, a fitting celebration as John and Tessia first met at Twin Hills ten years ago in 2009.

At the start of Mass and on behalf of the Twin Hills community, Terry Kenny from Llanarth Station presented Bishop Michael with a commemorative Stole of blue denim bearing a damper and a quarter-pot beneath crosses all crafted in leather, denoting the inherent Christian hospitality of the Australian bush. The healthy- sized collection, taken up in a ringer’s hat, was a further material expression of the mood of those present.

 In A Cathedral Built by God

(for the people of Twin Hills 16/9/2000)

 With the setting sun slanting through the gidyea trees

And the dust barely moving in the gentle breeze

At the end of the bough shed in Dennis’s camp

A match was set to an old kerosene lamp

The lamp was lit so all could see

To gather as family where the action would be

Across the flat from all corners they came

Diverse in appearance but in spirit the same

The children in front sat on a row of hay bales

The ringers at the back leaned on a hitching rail

On a stump or carried chair all came to rest

Dusty denim, big hats, and fashion parade best.

Around the camp table at the end of the shed

No walls, no roof just the sky overhead

The Word opened and spoken for all to hear

Love and peace the message; not anger and fear

Bread on an enamel plate, wine in a quartpot

A sight not uncommon in the bush folk’s lot

Held high by the ordained for all to see

Blessing it he said “Do this in memory of me”

No high altars, gold vestments or buildings spectacular

The Word breathed and spoken as “liturgy in the vernacular”

For some the surroundings may appear terribly odd

But for all present there, it was a Cathedral built by God.

Alan Guilfoyle 20/9/2000