In Far North Queensland there are a number of campdrafts in the region throughout the year supported by the many cattle properties and a long tradition of fine Australian horsemanship.
Both of these last two weekends saw large turnouts from the local communities as well as representatives from around the region seeking to win a draft at the local grounds. The sport of campdrafting still remains one of my favourite sports to watch and most recently photograph.
The weekend of 23-24 August was the Lakeland local campdraft. This town is at the gateway to Cape York, sitting on the fork of the road, with the western route heading towards Weipa and the northern route leading to Cooktown.
The campdraft here is new on the circuit as the Lakeland team seek to make it a permanent fixture on the horse sports calendar of the far north.
Up here the earth starts to take on the red coloured hue that starts to litter the cabin of every car that ventures any further north.
In a different direction, a short 150km south of Cairns lies the sugar mill town of Tully which hosted their annual campdraft on 29-31 August.
The Tully campdraft is a long established event for the Hinchinbrook branch of the Australian Stock Horse Association
With the mill itself directly across from the showgrounds, and the harvest well on the way, the smoke stacks appear to be part of the machinery generating the clouds in the rich blue sky above the town. Down here the soil is rich and black in colour ensuring the dust leaves a fine grey film over automobiles and humans alike.