words byYolande Szery
If you have lived in Malanda for the past few decades, there
is a strong chance you know Kate Stokes. She says it’s a very
unusual day in Malanda if she can walk down the street
unnoticed and without a quick stop to chat.
Perhaps you have seen her face while visiting the pharmacy,
the local supermarket or the old fairy shop? All were once
her place of work, but back then she would have been Miss
Bowden.
Now, however, the multi-tasking 29-year-old is the head of
the Malanda Show Society and a founding member of the
Malanda Bull Ride. So, even if you don’t know her by name
or by sight, the work she does forms a large part of the
Tablelands’ rich calendar of annual events.
Stokes is a busy lady – her hands are full-to-overflowing
as she juggles the looming deadlines associated with
the upcoming Malanda Show, as well as her regular job
managing the office at the butcher’s shop. She is also busily
preparing a weekend-long bull riding school to be held in
November as the official Bull Ride takes a rest until 2020.
At the helm of the Malanda Show for two years but
involved in a voluntary capacity for two years before that,
Stokes is clearly committed to the event and its success.
In 2016, volunteering for the 100th Malanda Show, Stokes
reinvigorated the Dairy Queen competition in an effort to
include and promote the role young women could play in
the community. It’s the cyclical nature of history that has
given Stokes and the show’s committee clues for the event’s
direction each year.
“We do focus a lot on our history and what has been done
before but I suppose we’re in a transition. Moving forward,
if we want to go for another 100 years we’ve got to keep up
with the times,” says Stokes.
The show’s long history is one that Stokes has been involved
in across her life, always attending the “highlight” of the year
and connecting with it through her family’s involvement in
the event.
Stokes was always interested in working in events but knew
that small towns offered few opportunities in her chosen
field. She studied Marketing and Tourism at James Cook
University in Cairns and volunteered wherever she could
so her foot would be firmly in the door and she would be
ready for any paid positions that may emerge. It was during
this time of volunteering (she was managing a local football
14 What’s On & Where To Go June / July 2019
team) that she became one of the founders of the Bull Ride,
now in its seventh year.
While Stokes is evidently somebody who likes to downplay
her achievements, the success of the event - which gathers
people from all over the state – is something that gives her
cause to beam.
“It’s huge,” she says, smiling. “So we started, our first year I
think we had 800 through our gate which was good and now,
we think the last couple of years we think we probably got up
to 3-5000.”
The event is now such a behemoth in its own right that it has
separated from its parent – the football club through which it
began – and it now stands alone.
This November, as the Bull Ride takes a hiatus, local teenagers
will have the opportunity to learn about the sport, which
Stokes says is important to offer while the larger event is on
the back-burner.
“Obviously there’s some disappointment because we’re not
doing the Bull Ride this year but I think it’s a way we (the
Malanda Bull Ride committee, of which Stokes is Treasurer)
can give back to the sport,” she says.
Passionate, though she is about the event, Stokes does not
consider herself one to jump on the bull.
“If, God-forbid, I got hurt, my role would be out,” she says,
concerned less with her own wellbeing than with the
important job she has when the Bull Ride event is in full
swing.
The years spent completing her degree was the only time
in her life that Stokes has lived outside of Malanda. Even
during those years, she says she returned frequently to visit
friends. It seems there is no separating Kate Stokes from the
place she loves. That sense of always knowing a friendly and
familiar face as she walks about town is something she loves
about where she lives.
When asked whether she will eventually move on from
Malanda, Stokes says it’s unlikely; she married someone who
loves the town every bit as much as she does.
Yolande Szery is a writer, mother, marriage celebrant
and wife who feels tired just thinking about Kate
Stokes’ schedule.