Information provided by the Bullsbrook Museum
In addition to training many young riders, Stampede Arena on Neaves Road in Bullsbrook was the place to go on New Year’s Eve for the legendary end-of-year rodeo, which had its final run in 2012.
Stampede Arena was built by the Adkins family with the help of many locals and the rodeo community. Richard (Dick) and Kathern Adkins first came out to Western Australia in 1969 to work at a property in the Kimberley region. They did this for twelve months, before briefly going back to Montana and the moving permanently to Western Australia in 1971. Following their move to WA, Dick’s parents, Harold and Lucille Adkins, came to visit and whilst here Harold began teaching people how to rope. The Adkins family purchased land off Neaves road in the early 1970’s, and this was the start of the Bullsbrook Stampede Arena, built by Harold and Lucille, Dick and Kathern and their three children, Shawn, Shad and Candy.
The arena was named after the ‘Wolf Point Wild Horse Stampede and Rodeo’ held in Montana. The arena allowed Harold somewhere to teach and train people to hone their rodeo skills. They transported an old house from the RAAF Base for Harold and Lucille to live whilst they were visiting WA.
The Adkins family decided to start running short-form rodeos, approximately 2 hours in length, as opposed to the all-day events that were popular around the state at the time. These events grew to include bareback bronc, saddle bronc (horse), bull riding, calf tying, barrel racing and even went on to feature a Rodeo Queen contest.
In the early days, the bucking horses were supplied by Barney Pollitt and Barry Smith, the bucking bulls came from Charlie Forbes, and the rodeo clowns were Laurie and Geoffery Martin.
Stampede Arena was purchased by Grant Edwards in 1980, who later supplied all the stock and continued to hold regular rodeos which attracted people from as far away as Newman. During this time the facilities were also used by pony clubs, adult-riding groups, the WA Mounted Police, and the Team Penners Association.
The New Years Eve rodeo became very popular attracting thousands of people from all around the state. West Coast Rodeo Circuit took over the running of events, until Stampede Arena was forced to close due to the RAAF resuming the land.
To see photos and memorabilia from the Stampede Arena days, check out the Bullsbrook Museum and Machinery Shed, open Sundays 10am to 2pm at 22 Turner Road, Bullsbrook.
