Community & Business
3 June, 2026
Pony Club celebrates 70 years
ONE of Mareeba’s longest operating clubs has celebrated its 70th year, paying tribute to its volunteers, fittingly on the last day of the statewide Volunteers Week celebrations.
The Mareeba Pony Club gathered at the Chewko Road Clubhouse to celebrate the milestone, which included Dimbulah-based bush author Colleen Taylor and her husband Henry and past pony club member John Tilse, penning a small booklet of the rally days held in the 1950s at Norm and Alice Chaplain’s dairy farm near Mareeba.
Many young keen riders, who didn’t own a horse, would walk or swim across the Barron River at Plowmans Crossing. Carrying their bridles, they were loaned horses by Norm and Alice and taught to ride, while mustering milking cows.
Past and present pony club members attended the “Tea & Tales” event at the pony club’s facilities on 23 May.
Memorabilia displayed at the event proved to be the centre of attention for all past and present members.
Norman and Alice Chaplain’ s grandson, Darryl, was present to honour the past contribution of his grandparents in those formative years.
As club membership expanded, in 1959 the club moved to the eastern side of the now Kerribee Park Rodeo Grounds.
The Rodeo committee donated outdated buckjump saddles after the then club president Jim Wallace spent much time repairing them.
In 1968, when Fred Kidner was president, the club moved to Basalt Gully (now Bicentennial Lakes) where many parents provided bulldozers and graders to remove the embankment and undertake improvements to flatten the ground so it would be suitable for riding events.
Yungaburra historian Allan Dowling displayed a magnificent collection of photographs during the establishment of the present grounds situated on Chewko Road during the 1980s.
He also told of a bygone era when the Babinda and Gordonvale Pony Club horses were transported by train to Yungaburra and Malanda Gymkhanas.
Well known Mareeba author Mary Thompson recalled the 40 years when her husband Colin and now 94-year-old Les Adams (who attended the celebratory event) held the position of chief instructor, specialising in jumping.
Past student Hazel Shannon, who has represented Australia in Japan at the Olympic Games and holds the record for winning three times at the Adelaide Three Day Event, is one of many other riders from Mareeba who have won international events.
Colleen Taylor complemented the past and present committees, parents and local businesses, who have donated generously to keeping the club riding on for 70 years.
