Birdsville Races tent boxer Brettlyn ‘The Beaver’ Neal retires to run for One Nation

When a tent boxer and Pauline Hanson entered the ring no one could have predicted what happened next. Now the Birdsville Races regular has a new fight on her hands.

An icon of the Outback has hung up the boxing gloves as she prepares for a new fight – a tilt at politics.

Sitting outside the pub – where her first Birdsville Races job as a security guard led her to the boxing tent – Brettlyn ‘The Beaver’ Neal has fought her final bout with Fred Brophy’s travelling troupe.

But not before racking up her 300th fight against a 14 year old girl who Beaver tips “will be winning Golden Gloves one day”.

At 38, she says the only reason she’s retiring is to run in the Queensland state election in the seat of Mirani for One Nation.

“Once you’ve been a fighter, you’re always a fighter. I’m literally just taking on a different fight,” Beaver said.

“You’ve got to make sacrifices to be the best that you can be at something. I need to put 100 per cent into that.”

Brettlyn ‘The Beaver’ Neal at the 2024 Birdsville Races. Picture: Matt Williams

Also known as Beaver Brophy, she has retired for boxing after the 2024 event. Picture: Matt Williams

It was in 2010 when Beaver first entered the ring, recording a draw before returning for round two the next night.

“I’m always down for a challenge. I got up and I fought and I won and then the next night, they’ve gone ‘come and do it again because you’ve drawn one, you’ve won one, she’s gonna want to take your head off’,” she said.

“I got there, put my hand up, and Fred said ‘no, no, no, no, you fight for me now’.”

Ever since, Beaver has been travelling the few parts of Australia where tent fighting remains legal with Brophy introducing her “leg hairs so sharp they could spear a rat” and sleeping a swag in “5000 star accommodation”.

And that’s how she first met Senator Pauline Hanson.

“She was a card girl in the tent,” Beaver said.

It was Hanson’s interest in Beaver using boxing as an engagement tool with “kids that were going down the wrong track” in Doomadgee and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities up The Cape, that drew her to the party.

“Boxing isn’t about beating someone up. It’s about discipline. It’s about respect. It’s about teamwork,” she said.

“There’s so much to boxing than teaching a mug to throw some punches.”

Senator Pauline Hanson and One Nation candidate Brettlyn ‘The Beaver’ Neal. Picture: Supplied

It’s this experience that will shape her political agenda.

“Our youth are our future and our catch and release laws that Labor have brought in are not working,” Beaver said.

“The whole system is about 10 years behind and these kids in 10 years time they’re not just gonna be stealing a car, they’re gonna be murdering people.

“I’ve tried and tested these programs. They work and a number of these kids don’t reoffend, and a high number of the kids re-engage in school and get jobs.”

The year Beaver spent living in Birdsville working at the bakery and attending road crashes with the SES and firefighters also led her to the political path.

Beaver Brophy in action at the 2024 Birdsville Races. Picture: Matt Williams

She wants all of Australia to be more like the Outback – where she says you can leave your car running and it still be there when you get back and the dirt tracks have less potholes than the Bruce Highway “death trap”.

“They need some of these bushies and not these city slickers to build the roads,” she said.

“I hold back a little bit in the tent, I certainly won’t be holding back if I’m elected because we definitely need a little bit of change with where our country’s going.”

Beaver has not ruled out a return to the ring saying “when I’ve done what I need to do in politics, there’s always masters”.

Originally published as Birdsville Races tent boxer Brettlyn ‘The Beaver’ Neal retires to run for One Nation