The Bronco Branding of calves was first used on the big station runs when there were no stock yards to hold the cattle. The cattle were rounded up, by members of the stock camp (ringers/jackaroos/station hands), into a mob on the open plain.

The Bronco horse with his harness and the catcher (man riding the horse) would ride through the mob and select the unbranded calves; lasso them with the bronco rope and pull them to a selected point, probably a forked tree where the stock camp would throw the calf , a brand was placed onto the animal as well as the property’s earmark and if the animal was a male - castrated. Once the calf was marked it was released back into the herd were the calf would find it’s mother.

 The present method of Bronco Branding, is to have a stock yard that holds about 200 cows and calves with bronco panel towards one corner of the yard.  Once the calf is lassoed, it is pulled to the panel by the bronco horse, where it is thrown by either scuffing or leg roping by the other members of the team. It requires a great deal of expertise by both man and horse.

 The most popular method by today’s standards is a drafting yard. After the calves have been separated from their mothers they are put through a race with a cradle at the far end; when the calf enters the cradle it is locked in, the easily pulled over by one person and held in position where it can be branded with ease.

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Bronco Branding was first performed as a competitive sport in Alice Springs in May 1984. At this event, The Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame - Outback Heritage Centre Bronco Branding, the more experienced stockmen of the Oodnadatta area, Ernie Giles (Welbourne Hill), Peter Giles (Wintinna), Bill Flemming (Arckaringa) and Brad Russel (Welbourne Hill).

The Oodnadatta Bronco Branding committee formed and in August 1984 held their first competition on Macumba Station.

The 1985 Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame - Outback Heritage Centre Bronco Branding, , was also won by a South Australian Team consisting of Ron Napier (Allandale), Garry Birchmore (Macumba), Grant McSporran (Hamilton) and Bobby Hunter (Stuarts Creek).

The Oodnadatta Bronco Branding Club hosted their first championship event in 1996. Since then Oodnadatta has hosted the 2000 & 2003 Australian Championships.

1996 - Dude Rangers - ‘Phantom’ alias Mark Spiers (Catcher), Ian Williams, (Singles) Tony Williams, Jason Jones.

1998 - SA TEAM Tony Williams & David Hunter (Catchers), (Doubles) Colin Greenfield, Phantom alias Mark Spiers , (Longreach) Andrew Clarke

2000 - Macumba Eddie Nunn (Catcher) Derek Rowe, Tom Curnow, (Singles) Warren Teague

The sport of campdrafting has its origins in the early days of the Australian stockman, and is believed to have begun in rural Queensland in the early part of the twentieth century. When drovers needed to select individual cattle from a mob to drive them to a separate holding area, the stockman would "cut out" the beast from the mob. This was achieved through the skills of the horse and rider to block the attempts of the beast to follow his natural instincts in returning to the mob. This was usually done when large mobs of cattle were mustered together and held by a team of horsemen on the open plain, while the nominated rider did the "cutting out". Over time, stockmen developed competitions based around this activity, which have evolved into the uniquely Australian sport as we know it today.

The sport today is conducted in a set of yards attached to an arena, and requires the competitor to "cut out" a beast from the yard or "camp", follow it out through an opened gate into the arena where he must guide the beast around a course of a right and left hand turns before guiding it through a gate, all in a short few minutes. Points are scored by horse and rider for cut out, horse work and course completion, from a possible total of 100 points. A good campdrafter is not just a fine horseman, but has the skill to select a suitable beast from the mob that will run well.

The prestige associated with a win in some of the more prestigious Campdraft’s in Australia, which can attract several hundred competitors is invaluable to the owner of the horse, as the winning horse is ranked amongst the finest stock horses in the country.
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Some information on this page was selected from the Australian Campdrafting Association, if you would like further information on campdrafting please visit their website www.campdraft.com.au