The Gold Coast has its own version of the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show that Sandra and I went to see at the Disney Village at Disneyland Paris. Located about 5 minutes drive from our house it seemed a shame not to go see the show and I dragged Mikey along with me to go see it.

The Spectacular takes you through, not surprisingly, the story of the Australian outback from meeting the stockmen and women of the outback, to the wild horses, cattle and sheep to showing you how colts are mustered and most interestingly the equestrian skills of those in the show. They even raced camels which was quite funny!

As with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show the guests are split into two teams with everyone receiving a stockmen hat (red or yellow) to support their station (with very Australian names of Austral Downs and Wondoola) in the competitions including various forms of horse racing and relays including racing a horse against a quad-bike! There was some crowd invovlement with four kids involved in the chook race and eight men involved in the “Boat Race/Beercan Regatta”.

Along with the show you get a three course Australian Barbecue meal. They really sell the meal as you can see from these descriptions:

To Get You Started Mixed Bushman’s Queensland Salad served with tangy mango dressing.
Main Swag Bonza Barbecue eye fillet steak, with rich gravy, seasoned with Kakadu plum sauce and served with garden vegetables and Damper – the Bushman’s bread.
Shearer’s Dessert Deadset traditional baked Pavlova with a Queensland berry sauce and country cream and Bush Billy Tea.

The meal wasn’t half bad though my steak was a little on the tough side. The show wasn’t half bad either though it seemed really short (just over 90 minutes all up with a lot of story-telling and throughout.) I was most impressed with the riding skills of the stockmen and women (and most of them were pretty fit too if you know what I mean! There’s just something about the snug jeans and cowboy boots combo! heh heh) The lead stockwomen even rode one of the horses bareback and at breakneck speed which was very impressive. The show, at $95 for adults and $65 for kids, seems pretty steep but I guess its not something you do everyday and for the kids was very entertaining.