"I've spent all my life at Ballater Station southwest of Hughenden. Three of my four boys, Rob, Glen and Steve are all calf ropers - Todd rides a motorbike. A big highlight for me was the year Rob and I won Cloncurry. We've won two Cloncurry's together and one Richmond, but my regular partner now is Scott Napier. We get to most of the rodeos in the North, certainly all the professional ones. It gives Lyn and me a break away from the property together, and most years we get to Warwick for a few weeks and make it a holiday.
 
"We have our own community within rodeo and I enjoy that, and it's a sport that's kept me active for the last 35 years. I'm not quite the oldest competitor - Ron Purse is a couple of years older, and of course there's Cliff Mcintyre. He actually started calf roping on my horse.
 
"Rodeo has become much more professional over the years and the riders know more about what they're doing. There are fewer accidents or serious injuries now. And there are rodeo schools. I'd advise young people, even if they're going to be ropers, to go to a school first before they really get serious about it - because then they learn to do things right, and stop serious injuries. There are coaching schools for juniors now, and that's one of the best things that's happened in a long time. Cliff got that going as a big thing and he deserves a lot of credit for that.
 
"Professional contract stock has done rodeo a lot of good. Admittedly it was spectacular with the 'green' stock but there were far too many injuries. I suppose people who go along to rodeo to see the spectacle wouldn't worry about the injuries but when you know everybody you don't want to see your friends hurt.
 
"I've been very lucky in the horses I've bought in order to breed team roping horses. I'm breeding out of a mare that I won the Golden Run buckle on, and a stallion that I used to calf rope on, so I was fortunate to buy two champions. The horse I'm using now is about to retire.
 
"In the old days there were a lot of cowboys then that could work and would work. Well, you had to or you'd starve, wouldn't you? Tom Lockie used to come up with a load of spuds trying to pay his way around Australia. He used to have a big dog in the early 60's, a Great Dane-Boxer cross, and he could carry a 13 stone person. Tom had a horse-float and a box beside it and the dog used to stand in it. They used to rib him that he had a little pony and this great big dog, and they'd ask him which one he was riding that afternoon?
 
"But I remember some close calls. Dave Harmon was a saddle bronc rider, and Lyn was in the shower room with his wife at Mount Isa. They only had ten shillings between them, but they went and nominated for Darwin, with ten shillings in the world".