TT Annual Awards Burke - NSW 2013

TT members, family and friends, from all over Eastern Australia (plus Wal from PNG) camped everywhere on this bend in the mighty Darling River.

Almost everyone brought items for the trophy wall that would act as a backdrop to the Saturday night awards. Our campsite consisted of basic bush amenities including shower, long drop toilet, lean to kitchen and undercover eating area with an open fire at one end. It soon became apparent that the undercover area would be nowhere near big enough to accommodate our display and a large tarped area would need to be erected for our display of head mounts, skull capped trophies, hunting albums and framed photo's etc.

TT has its own considerable supply of special display backing boards which I'd dropped up a few months earlier. Come Saturday morning ALL members were called together, allocated jobs and then worked hard for a couple of hours to put yet another magnificent Bowhunting display together for all to admire. Well done guys, great teamwork and effort.

The Saturday night awards saw a good gathering of members and visitors (all looking splendid in the 2013 Awards Bush Shirts) with all in attendance giving due recognition to the winners of the best of each species for 2012/13. These winners are formally listed elsewhere within the newsletter and I will simply say well done to each and everyone of you for firstly your successes in the previous 12 months and secondly for making the effort to register these quality trophies with us.

2013 Award Winners:

Boar – Stuart Hervert (31DS)

Goat – Jeremy Brown (123 4/8 DS)

Red Deer – Robbie Austen (384 6/8 DS)

Fallow Deer – Pete Morphett (245 5/8 DS)

Rusa Deer – Ben Salleras (217 3/8 DS)

Chital Deer – Paul Southwell (186 3/8 DS)

Sambar Deer – no ratings

Hog Deer – no ratings

Fox – Dave Whiting (10 10/16 DS)

Buffalo – Adam Greentree (108 4/8 DS)

Cat – Mark Wills (7 14/16 DS)

Bill Baker Deer Award – Robbie Austen

Ian Fenton Traditional Award –
shared by Leanne Williams (110 DS goat) and
James Warne (110 4/8 DS goat)

Dave Whiting Small Game Award –
Steven Holgate (7 foxes a cat and a rabbit in 1 hunt!)

Kev Whiting/ Dallas Conway No 1’s –
Robbie Austen (384 6/8 DS red stag)
Adam Greentree (108 4/8 DS buffalo)

Chairmans Award –
Mark Southwell (21 ¾ DS chamois)

Paul Wheller Junior Bowhunter –
Glenn Payne (228 1/8 DS fallow)

Danny "where am I" McMahon Legend Award –
Ben “where is my new Keable recurve” Reith

Doug and Paul Church judged the taxidermy and photographic division of our display. Some of the winners were;

Best Taxidermy - Black Billy - Trevor Willis

Best Bowhunting Photo Album - Pete Fryda - (Chaiman's Note; Best Album I've seen in 25 years of making this presentation)

Best Framed Hunter and Game - "Boar foxed in" featuring James Warne taken by Darren Hayman

Best Unframed Hunter and Game - "Warra's first Buck" taken by Jeremy Brown

Best Framed Hunting Photo - "Red on the horizon" taken by Shannon James (Chairman's note; again one of the best I've seen)

Best Unframed Hunting Photo - "Keable on the Red" taken by Dave Whiting

Best Framed nature photo - "NZ treacherous beauty" taken by Mark Southwell

Best Unframed nature photo - "Eagle chic" taken by Shane Dupille

Best Composite photo - Wayne Anderson - Wangaratta Vic - Basalt Boars

I was also very honoured to have a beautiful cake presented to me and a few kind words from good long-time friends Dave James, Wayne Anderson and Dave Keable for reaching a landmark 25 years as Chairman of Trophy Takers. Thanks to Mel Hancock for making the cake, it was a work of art (see photo) and well done to Shane Dupille for getting it from Dubbo to south of Bourke in one piece!

Once again we finished the night with a monster raffle and special thanks go to the following sponsors and members who made the effort to contribute to the raffle.

*Manuel Agius and Dave Keable composite custom arrows (Major Sponsor)
*Wayne Anderson Blademaker Custom Knives (Major Sponsor)
*Outback Broadheads (Major Sponsor)
*Barrabooka Archery Supplies - Paul Church - (Major sponsor)
*Gino at Adventure gear Albury NSW
*Benson Archery
*BP Bourke NSW
* Berdine Warne - Little Berdy - Bourke NSW
*Sean "Warra" Walsh
*Swarovski optics
*Darren Hayman
*Mick Kernaghan
*Mark Southwell – Bigmaxy Productions
*Antonio Lara - South Pacific Bowhunter Magazine

A special thanks to Steve "Wal" Parker for organising the best shirts ever for this year’s Awards via his family printing and embroidery business based in Darwin. To Shane Dupille for taking a bit of the pressure off re market sales and raffle ticket sales over the weekend. And to Mark Southwell for his support and calming influence as my right hand man as we work our way through the Saturday night Awards presentation.

Long time TT member and keen bowhunter, Rod Shorten showed up from Brewarrina on the Sunday and kept a sizeable gathering of us entertained for many hours with his many colourful stories from the past, some bowhunting related and others simply great yarns of his adventures in getting to and from hunts, going to shoots and socialising with fellow bowhunters etc. Well done Rod, it was great to have you back in our camp.

The pack up of the display on the Sunday for the long trip home for many was a bit of a task but as usual I am proud to say it was done with a minimum of fuss which simply seems the way with these bunch of guys we call Trophy Takers, Bowmen of the Bush.

Merry Christmas and Good hunting in 2014
Dave Whiting, Chairman.

TT awards pictures below.