The newest event on Walgett's sporting calendar is a celebration of machine versus mud. And the rains arrived in perfect time.
Almost 1000 people gathered at the Walgett showgrounds for the town's inaugural mud trial. They came from Goondiwindi and Gunnedah, Coonamble and Collarenebri, to watch 30 drivers push their old bombs to the limits on a muddy track.
The sport of mud bombing has been popular in north-west NSW since the 1950s and its fanbase is growing. Drivers tackle a muddy circuit with long, deep holes cut in the middle of each straight, building up to speeds of 80km/h before slamming into the mud.
It is more of a trial than a race, with points awarded for the most laps completed in a given time and extra points for getting through the hardest sections of the track. A dedicated tractor man is always on hand to winch competitors out when they get bogged.
It's hard to run a mud trial in the middle of a drought.
Recent rainfalls, including the most significant one-day fall in more than a decade, created the ideal conditions for mud bombing leading up to last Sunday's trials, as well as bringing hope to the local community.
"It's been a long time we've been in drought, three or four years," the president of the Walgett Mud Trials, Kurt Maxwell, said. "We were very, very lucky to have some rain. It was a relief for a lot of people, not just for farmers but the community too. They've done it so tough."
Dozens of children - some of whom had never seen rain - splashed through muddy puddles before the main event. Behind the wheel of vehicles with names like "Yeti", "Flogga" and "Widow Maker", drivers competed in three different categories: buggies, modified and standards.
Errol Carter, of Moree, has been building and driving mud bombs since his late teens. His son Michael and daughter Tarni also race and their pride and joy, "Hershey", won the modified category at Walgett.
"One end of the car to the other is stressed to its maximum, it's really very testing on the car parts," Mr Carter said. "It's not just the competition, it's the challenge of making your car good enough to withstand the day and perform on the day."
The NSW championships are coming up in nearby Collarenebri, while the village of Boomi (population 243) will host the national championship later this year.
