Every year Mount Isa, the remote Queensland mining town, hosts Australia’s richest and biggest rodeo.

It’s
a world away from southern Iraq. But seven years after moving to
Australia with his family, up-and-coming bull rider Haider Al Hasnawi
feels right at home at the rodeo.“It’s just an adrenalin rush, the atmosphere, there’s no better feeling than being on the back of a bull,” says Haider.

The 17-year-old fencing worker from Katherine in the Northern Territory first jumped on a bull two years ago. Now, he’s hooked.

Haider
was the only Iraqi-born bull rider at the rodeo. He says if that helps
change negative stereotypes of Muslims, that’s an added bonus.


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