Mount Isa Mines Rodeo injects $10m into outback economy with more than 33,000 visitor nights

The Mount Isa rodeo brings more to the table than just adrenaline-pumping action, with the iconic event also pumping $10m into the local economy and drawing thousands of interstate visitors from across the country.

Longreach girls Tyler, 12, and Jacy Morton, 13, are ready for the Mount Isa Rodeo. Photo: Aaron Skin

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The Mount Isa Mines Rodeo brings more to the table than just adrenaline-pumping action with the iconic event pumping $10m into the local economy and drawing thousands of interstate visitors from across the country.

As the countdown begins for the nine-day festival, organisers have released the dollar figures for the 2022 event, and they shimmer like the renowned buckles awarded to the rodeo’s champions.

The Mount Isa Mines Rodeo generated $10m in overnight visitor expenditure last year according to data from Tourism and Events Queensland.

It was also responsible for more than 33,000 visitor nights in Mount Isa, with most of these nights from intrastate visitors who travelled more than 40km from their homes.

Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the rodeo always provided a significant boost to the Outback region and this year’s event was expected to be even bigger with live bull and bronc riding action, team roping, steer wrestling and much more.

Keely Geiger is kicking up her heels for the 2023 Mount Isa Mines Rodeo Festival. Picture: Supplied

“What does it take for this robust, mining town to host the largest rodeo in the southern hemisphere and one of Queensland’s major tourism events for the year?” he said.

“It takes incredible community support, hard work, perseverance, an enormous logistics operation, passion, positive energy and a determination that no matter what challenges lay ahead, we will never lose sight of the vision forged by our rodeo founders, a group of visionary Rotarians.”

“In 1959, the Combined Rotary Clubs of Mount Isa, armed with passion and an intrinsic sense of potential, formed the Mount Isa Rodeo with the aim to put the new, remote town of Mount Isa on the map and raise funds for charitable organisations in the new city.

“Today, through 63 years of whip-cracking dedication, the Rodeo has evolved into an event of legendary status that this year has morphed into a nine-day festival.”

The famous red dirt of the Mount Isa Mines Rodeo arena.

Festivities get under way with the glamorous country hoedown, the Rodeo Arena Ball, on August 5, the Isa Street Festival featuring Darryl Braithwaite on August 9 and the famed Mount Isa Mines Rodeo proper from August 11-13.

Entertainment includes The Angels, The Screaming Jets, O’SHEA, Furnace and the Fundamentals and Luke Geiger.

Originally published as Mount Isa Mines Rodeo injects $10m into outback economy with more than 33,000 visitor nights