"I learnt enough about the sport to be able to do it. For the first couple of years I worked under Peter Beard ? he was then Personnel Officer at Mount Isa Mines. Then contract announcers were brought in and I worked very closely with Max McCauley.
 
"In the early 80s I finally became a Rotarian and they immediately grabbed me for the Sponsorship and Marketing Committee and we tied up the Fourex sponsorship for the Bicentennial rodeo. In September of that year the Chairman, Noel Langley, was stepping aside and they came to me and asked me to be Chair. It was all part of a set?up. It's the way Rotary worked and still does. You don't dare miss a meeting because if you do you'll be volunteered for something".
 
Chairing the rodeo committee is a year round job. It begins as soon as the rodeo ends with a post mortem, which over the years showed up the need for entertainment for children and saw Rotarians building a Ferris wheel, merry?go?rounds and a giant slippery dip. The committee arranged artists, singers and entertainers, including a performance by Slim Dusty. Any changes to the organising team are made at the Annual General Meeting in October and by November the 10 to 11 members of the committee are meeting monthly. By March the meetings are held every fortnight, and by May, every week. As Chair, Terry spent an average of around 30 hours a week on rodeo matters, over and above his normal job as General Manager of 4LM in the early 90s, all of it unpaid.
 
Other volunteers on the Rodeo Committee comprised the Secretary, Treasurer, Arena Director, Entertainment Director, Provisions Director, Grounds Director, and in part of Terry's time, the Carandotta Director.
 
"We developed Carandotta. We built a house, and called it The Ponderosa. We all loved to go down there for our working bees and there were at least three a year. We'd all get up to mischief of course, and anyone who went there for the first time would always get initiated in some way, shape or form. I won't say what used to happen but it was all part of the fun.
 
"Blondie was our own. She was a Carandotta horse and just a magnificent animal. It seemed she was an animal that just loved to buck, and as soon as she tossed her rider she'd do a lap of honour. She actually pranced around with her tail up, looking out at the crowd. And of course the crowd would be standing and cheering, and she knew her name. Then when she'd finished she'd go into the centre of the arena and stand there for a second, wait for the gate to be opened and bolt for it. She was done, that was her bit. We used to love that. It'd bring a lump to your throat.
 
"We actually did want to pull her out when she turned up with a foal, but the APRA guys insisted she should go, and we got advice from the vet that it wouldn't be a major problem. It was a shame really, I reckon she'd have gone on for a few more years.
 
"But some of the stories we used to hear from the guys camped out at the ground. I got there one morning and they said, 'Ray Hermann rode Blondie last night', and we said 'What do you mean?' And they said, 'Ah, they all got pissed and they got inside to see if they could ride her', and I said, 'Yeah, bullshit'. No one ever proved it to us. We always said it was all beer talk.
 
"I never ever did ask him. I really didn't want to know, not in those days. I do now, but I didn't then. I thought 'Oh bugger it, that's the last thing we want'.
 
Under Terry's Chairmanship, by 1997, Rotary Rodeo was nearing $3 million in donations to charitable, community, cultural and sporting organisations in Mount Isa. He strongly believes that it is a community service first, and a fund?raising activity second. However, it was estimated in the late 80s that the rodeo was injecting $6 million into the community each year, and the figure was growing.
 
"I've never ever dwelled on why I do community service. I've just done it over the years. I discovered at an early age that if you did things for other people you were rewarded, there's no shadow of a doubt about it. I don't set out with the thought of reward in mind, but I love the feeling you get back from something well done, and the satisfaction.
 
"I always felt good about what we did for the rodeo, and always felt let down straight after it was over. Jeez, that's it. But the next day you'd say, 'Well, that's it for this year, we're back into it tomorrow, guys".