Crowds gather in Tas. to watch ferrets race for top prize

ABC NEWS (Australia)

While some traditional Australia Day events across the country have moved to new dates, a century old event has returned to Tasmania after a Covid-induced hiatus.

Transcript

00:00 There are hundreds of people gathered here today cheering on the ferrets as they race

00:05 for the title of Tasmania's fastest ferret.

00:09 Ferret racing has been a tradition here for decades.

00:12 Today 26 ferrets are competing in 13 heats before things get spicy in the finals.

00:18 There's been great variation on the track.

00:21 Some have navigated through with speed and precision while others haven't quite taken

00:25 to it, stopping midway through or even reversing.

00:30 Here's what some of the competitors had to say today.

00:32 And how do you think Chorlop's going to go today?

00:34 Oh she's very skinny you see.

00:36 She's very long, she might do very well.

00:38 We've been doing this for quite a few years now.

00:40 I reckon this will be my ninth or tenth year.

00:43 We've had ferrets ever since Pop was growing up.

00:46 He's had them since he was a kid and it's kind of been passed down to me and my younger sister.

00:50 Molly decided to go backwards, which isn't like her.

00:53 She came third a few years ago.

00:56 But no, she let me down today.

00:58 She decided to go backwards.

01:00 He's just so malleable.

01:02 But today isn't just fun and ferrets.

01:04 Organisers stress today is a community event, not an Australia Day event.

01:08 They say they'll debrief after today and if the community feedback is it's time to move

01:13 to another date, they'll take that on board and consider another time in January.

01:17 in January.

01:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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