MIGHTY MOSSMAN SHOW: Canadian touch to wood chopping event
Published Thursday 14 July 2016
The wood chopping competition at this year’s Mossman Show has attracted a competitor from as far afield as Canada as the event celebrates its 62nd year.
The two-day traditional agricultural and community annual show is being hosted at Mossman Showgrounds from 8:00am each day on Sunday 24 July and Public Holiday Monday 25 July.
“We have 15-20 who will be competing in the wood chopping and we are delighted to be welcoming a Canadian this year. We have competitors from Mossman, Mission Beach, Tasmania, NSW, Victoria, the Tablelands and Darwin,” said Brendan Wildsoet.
Championship, Handicap and Tree events make up the competition and will certainly be one of the highlights of the show. “I never knew this event has been around for as long as 62 years, but it certainly is a key milestone,” said Wildsoet.
Malanda is celebrating 100 years of wood chopping at the show this year, and this is being celebrated with all North Queensland shows this year.
Wood chopping, called woodchop for short, is a sport that has been around for hundreds of years in several cultures. In wood chopping competitions, skilled contestants attempt to be the first to cut or saw through a log or other block of wood. It is often held at state fairs and agricultural shows. Participants are often referred to as axemen.
The modern sport of wood chopping is said to have had its genesis in 1870 in Ulverstone, Tasmania, as the result of a £25 ($50) bet between two axemen as to who could first fell a tree.
The world's first wood chopping championship was held in 1891, at Bell's Parade, Latrobe, Tasmania. This event was celebrated and commemorated with the selection of the site to be the home of the Australian Axemen's Hall of Fame and Timberworks.
Many wood chopping events are handicap events, where the axemen start at different times, depending on how fast they are expected to chop through the log. In New Zealand and parts of Australia, each axeman's individual handicap is recorded in performance books which are graded on how many events they win and how many events they enter. Championship events are scratch events with no handicap, and typically use larger diameter logs (375 mm).
Handicap events may use logs of 250 mm to 350 mm, depending on the skill of the competitors. All competitors have the same size log; the handicap is based purely on time.
Show secretary Ann Baldwin, now into her 12th year, said it is exciting to see the dog show return and the crowd-pleasing bike show.
“It was last held in 2014 and I know many will flock to watch this exhibition,” she said.
Newsport is a media sponsor at this year’s show.
