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Personal injury news
Accident claims threaten popular Australian tradition
The Outback’s Bachelor and Spinster Ball, one of Australia’s most cherished traditions and notorious for wild drunkenness and casual fornication, is at risk of dying out.
A recent exodus of youngsters from the bush, stricter alcohol laws, years of drought and a huge increase in accident claims resulting in rocketing insurance costs have brought about the end of many of the popular events.
Held in dusty paddocks near remote Outback towns, ‘B&S’ balls are a magnet for young shearers, stockmen and the jackaroos and jillaroos that work in isolated sheep and cattle farms, and are a rare opportunity to meet members of the opposite gender.
Binge drinking and philandering are the main orders of the day, and the copious amounts of beer and rum that are consumed result in what can only be described as carnage. Tanked-up young men prove their masculinity in a whole host of ways, including racing in pick-up trucks and ‘surfing’ on car bonnets tied to the back of a speeding vehicle with a piece of rope.
At the end of the night those unlucky enough not to have found a mate fall asleep, or more normally pass out, in a swag, a uniquely Australian combination of a sleeping bag, mattress and ground sheet.
Not surprisingly, every B&S ball sees large numbers of personal injuries and an ever-increasing amount of accident claims. As a result, insurance premiums are becoming so high that many organisers can’t afford to continue running them.
Steve Burns, the owner of the only pub in the Outback Queensland town of Nindigully, population nine, said, “B&S balls are a coming-of-age ritual for kids in the bush. They throw food dye at each other, tear their clothes off, root in the corners.
“They’re good country kids- they don’t do drugs but they do like a drink. They’ll drive a thousand kilometres just to come to a well-known ball. It’s a tradition we need to hold on to.”
