The Rouchel Bushmans Carnival consists of three books.

The Rouchel Bushmans Carnival People Book 3. 

This introduction is taken from the PhD essay submitted to The University of Newcastle 2003 by Allan Chawner. It is not included in the PDF book.

The carnival, which is a one or two day rodeo event, has been part of the community in some form since the 1920s.  It has changed progressively in recent years due to the external pressures of insurance litigation and the economics of rural industry.  Carnivals like the Rouchel Bushmans Carnival developed out of the need for entertainment, business and celebration, and for a meeting place for the maintenance of the society.  Larger centres have shows, such as the agricultural shows that are annual events.  Smaller regional centres, such as Rouchel, host a carnival or fair at the local oval.  The oval performs a number of functions such as providing a sporting arena and the necessary ancillary buildings, as well as reflecting the local farming community’s growing and grazing production.  People could come together not just to buy or sell but also to exchange information and compete or show their produce and skills.  These meets were like “busman’s holidays” as camp draught, cut out, barrel races and other horse related events demonstrate the skills required on a daily basis.  People meet and compare notes, form alliances and marriages.   

Up until the 1980s dairy farming was the primary use of the land.  Only one dairy remains.  Before that time, sheep grazed the hills but now beef fattening is the primary use of the land. The number of farm workers have been reduced markedly and local property sizes have grown enormous, compared to only a few years ago. There are far fewer local people living in the locality and the itinerant population has been reduced greatly.  This has been a factor in the gradual changes that have taken place in the carnival in the time I have been attending. The Rouchel Bushmans Carnival is part of a circuit of events, which are programmed for rotation throughout the year.

 
The Rouchel Bushmans Carnival provides a view of Australian country life in microcosm.  The carnival brings together people in a celebration of skills and cultural mores and allows outsiders to enter the local domain.  At the event, it is possible to assess the condition of livestock, the rainfall, the condition of the land the economic climate for farmers.  All these aspects are part of the carnival and contribute to the atmosphere and staging of the rodeo.  The carnival has been cancelled twice due to drought as the cattle were in poor condition. 

The Rouchel Bushmans Carnival is held at “the oval”: a general purpose field with all the necessary facilities including tennis court, supper room, bar, toilets, showers and cattle handling areas.  The oval is set in a valley.  From the hill behind the oval you can see the surrounding countryside and take in the camp draft and “ring two”, which is usually reserved for children’s events.

 
 Horsemanship and skills related to a working life on the land are celebrated by the main events. One of them; the camp draught demonstrates the ability of the team of horse and man to drive a beast through a figure eight course and gates in a set time.  The skill of the rider and the ability of the horse are assessed by a judge and the style and experience of the pair is examined.  Marks are awarded to the horse, thus allowing a number of entries by the one rider. 

The importance of the animal and its worth are therefore the main features of the event and the talk of the day is generally about horses.  Exchanges of information  revolve around the maintenance of lifestyle and methods of farm production.  The campers or day-trippers attending the carnival are a major element in the carnival, as more and more people are able to come from outside the area to participate in the listed circuit events. The visitors live in the back of their trucks with the horses are tethered in makeshift corrals beside the vehicles.  The trucks allow for a view of the proceedings from a good vantage point.  Families enter as many as two or three horses per rider with up to eight horses per truck. 

The people prepare and go about their business in organizing the horse and riders in an atmosphere of quiet familiarity.   The competitive events seem to carry a sense of work-related urgency and during these events both horse and rider are watched with casual attention.  The overall effect suggests an agreed regularity of purpose and the deliberate action. 

The structure of the day is only altered by changes in the weather, and the momentary pauses for the award prizes.  The horses stand in line to receive ribbons and the occasional cup.  The purpose of the day is partly the competition but also includes the playing out of routines and processes of management and the interaction of steers, horses and people.  

As the carnival unfolds during the day, I photograph riders, watchers and on occasion set up a portrait.  In 1991, I used a single flash with a brolly to make portraits in the back of a truck as it was raining.  I have made almost an entire panel of these portraits. 

Part of the daily routine over the years has been food preparation.  The supper rooms provide a place to sit down and have a cup of tea.  Historically, the women have run the shed but in recent years, men have played an ever increasing role.  The supper room sells homemade cakes and slices, confectionaries, ice creams and drinks.  It is a meeting place, not unlike the pub.  The pub is on the far edge of the oval grounds and has separateness about it, although the playground, now removed, was along side it.

The Rouchel Bushmans Carnival is an annual event that attracts entrants from a wide area; as far as the Central Coast and north to Grafton, west to beyond Tamworth.  The idea of Rouchel as an album of a locality does not seem appropriate, rather I suggest that the Rouchel Bushmans Carnival is connected annually with primarily the same group of travellers who “do the circuit”.  These travellers return every year to the same camping space.  I see these people as Rouchel people because every year they are present.  I see the same people every year and they see me. We are associated with the same place and time.  We become locals for that time. The idea of an album for these people is logical as we are together one weekend every year as part of the Rouchel Bushmans Carnival.  

I am interested in the relationship of people with the weather and its effect on the way lives are organized by it and around it.  Drought can be devastating for the community.  Weather is the topic of conversation or can begin or end the conversation.  It is so central to life that the keeping of weather statistics, its comparison and its reporting is vital.  From one hill to the next, the variation of rainfall can be significant and the effect the effect of that variation dramatic.  Agreements on irrigation were in place years before governmental control reached the area. These arrangements came about in part because of events like the Rouchel Bushmans Carnival and the relationships that it has nurtured. 

Copyright Allan Chawner 2026