Goanna pull, Birdsville Races: the outback tug o’ war

Two strangers, joined at the head by their own looped belts, crouch in the sand at Birdsville. What on earth is going on?

TWAM 5 Dec 2015

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Who knows what hidden talents people harbour? Scott Lewis, a 47-year-old father of three from suburban Sydney, never knew he was a natural at the “goanna pull”. He’d never even heard of the outback sport – a tug-of-war between two combatants joined at the head by their own looped belts – before he went to the Birdsville Races in September. That’s him in the blue shirt, with one of half a dozen challengers he saw off that day before retiring undefeated, covered in sand and sweat but with his head held high, a stiff neck notwithstanding. The appreciative crowd gave him the fighting nickname White Horse.

Heart of the nation

Lewis, pictured in a shot from the Nikon-Walkley Awards, lives in Cronulla and works as an electrician at Port Botany, servicing the cranes that load container ships. His down-time revolves around the ocean, surfing and spearfishing. He’d never been to Birdsville before. The epic road trip with a couple of friends to the “Melbourne Cup of the Outback” was well worth it, though: it wasn’t just the three days of drinking, gambling and roaring he loved; it was the instant rapport with thousands of strangers. “Everyone you bumped into was your mate,” he says. Funnily enough, his sons back home learnt of the legend of White Horse in real time when a tagged photo of the goanna pull popped up on a social media site that one of them was browsing. “That’s Dad!” he exclaimed. Then, “What’s he doing?”

Lewis will return to next year’s Birdsville Races with a group of 30 blokes celebrating his eldest boy’s 21st. Will White Horse ride again? “I’ll have to step up to the plate, for sure,” he says. “But I don’t fancy my chances against the young blokes.”