THE sport of rodeo-riding is not for the fainthearted, as Noel Fraser knows only too well.
The Wilmington farmer started his rough-riding career as a "young fella".
In his early teenage years, he would sneak away from home and catch rides to the Carrieton rodeo - he won the poddy steer rides there three years in a row - which well and truly hooked him to the rough and tumble of rodeo life.
The passion continued through his late teens, when Noel competed in novice sections across Australia and brought home a swag of state titles.
"Rodeo is just something that is in your blood," he said.
"I wasn't from a rodeo family but was used to horses at an early age.
"Breaking-in horses, you get used to riding a few rough ones. Then word gets around and everyone starts bringing their outlaws to you."
Noel helped kickstart the first Wilmington rodeo in 1966, cutting pine posts and rails from the Willowie Forest by axe to build the original Wilmington rodeo arena.
He said the first rodeo was a "boomer" and one of the biggest the town had seen on a "stinking hot" new-year's-day. Noel also supplied stock on the day and won the event's bronc ride.
In the early years, rodeo crowds fluctuated from 1000 to 2500 but it was not until a very small turnout on a sweltering New Year's Day rodeo in 1976 - the same year a streaker ran across the arena in broad daylight - that the committee decided to hold a night-time rodeo.
In 1979, Wilmington held South Australia's first night rodeo - which turned out to be Australia's only all-night rodeo.
The event started at 7pm and a crowd of 2200 waited to watch the final bull bucked-out at 5.45am the next morning as 218 cowboys competed, with only three chutes.
The night rodeo went on to become one of Australia's biggest and richest and is kept going by a small hardworking committee and dedicated locals.
In the early days of his career, Noel 's earnings were some of the biggest made by a rodeo rider at the time, and he bagged many state titles. But he said his achievements have been "well and truly surpassed" by his sons Danny and Scott.
As second-generation rough riders, Danny and Scott slipped into the rodeo game from a young age and have become two of Australia's most successful rodeo cowboys.
Both rode across Australia, Canada and the United States in the 1990s and have a string of high-profile achievements between them.
They have both been awarded many state titles including SA All Round Champion Cowboy backing wins in saddle bronc, bareback and bull riding and have travelled thousands of kilometres in the rodeo circuit.
Danny has won the Australian Bull Riding Championships and the Australian Pro Tour bull riding and bareback riding buckles.
Scott was awarded the Australian Pro Tour Rodeo All Round Champion Cowboy after winning all three rough stock events - the bull, bareback and saddle bronc rides. He was the first to achieve this in one year.
In one American rodeo, Scott won these three sections in one night, the first time it had been done in the US.
The Fraser boys try to compete in every event on the program and are "good all-rounders", Noel said.
"We like to see blokes competing on the bulls, the broncs, roping and steer wrestling.
"It suited our work to be a good all-rounder, which is tied up with the lifestyle we were living of chasing wild horses and cattle."
Noel farms at Wilmington and runs Angus cattle and Dorper sheep on Mount Clarence Station, via Coober Pedy, where they also breed bucking bulls and horses.
"It is getting harder to find good bucking stock," he said. "Everything that is a bit feral, a bit inclined to buck, is culled out pretty quick. So we are trying to keep those traits in our breeding herds."
Noel also supplies a portable rodeo complex for towns without permanent fixtures.
Noel runs rodeo schools at Wilmington to help riders "brush off the cobwebs and rust" ready for the rodeo season and to give new starters their first taste of the sport.
"There are not many places you can go to practice rodeo, which can cut people off," he said. "It's a bit of a fine door to get through, actually."
*Full report in Stock Journal, January 26 issue, 2012.
