After a string of events south of the border, the PBR Australia Monster Energy Tour returns to Queensland this weekend for the 2025 Mackay Invitational.

This will be a two-night event, held on Friday, 3 October and Saturday, 4 October 2025 at BB Print Stadium. Rounds 1 and 2 will kick off the competition on Friday at 7:30 p.m. AEST, with Rounds 3 and 4 contested on Saturday from 7:00 p.m. AEST.

PBR Australia’s Can-Am Junior Academy will also be in action this weekend. The young guns will be contesting their final regular season event of the year from 5:00 p.m. AEST on Saturday.

Event Information and Tickets are available from the PBR Australia website.

Event History

Historically, events in Mackay have been dominated by some of the best in the business. In the past decade, we have seen five PBR Australian National Champions and a further three Rookies of the Year take the event win.

Gold Buckle winners who have tasted success in the Sugar City include Cody Heffernan (2015), Fraser Babbington (2017), Aaron Kleier (2021), Macaulie Leather (2023) and Boston Leather (2024).

In 2023, Macaulie Leather rode all three of his bulls to hold off Cody Heffernan and Aaron Kleier in a thrilling finish, while in 2024, it was Boston Leather who dominated the event, riding 5-from-6 across dual entries to record a personal one-two finish.

Some of the highest-scoring rides in PBR Australia history have been recorded at this event. The best of those came in 2018, when Ryan Storey combined with POA Fully Locked and Loaded (Dittmann Bucking Bulls) for 90.50 points during the Championship Round to snatch the win.

View the latest results from PBR Australia competition here.

Format, Prizemoney and Points

Twenty-two riders will compete at the 2025 Mackay Invitational, with $25,000 in prize money on offer, plus a $5,000 bonus for the cowboy leading after night one. All riders will face a bull in Rounds 1 and 2 on Friday night, and in Rounds 3 and 4 on Saturday night. The rider with the highest aggregate score from all four rounds will be crowned the event champion.

A maximum of 360 points will be available to any individual rider towards the 2025 PBR Australian National Standings. Each round winner will receive 40 points, and the event champion will receive 200 points.

Watch all the action on PBR Australia’s YouTube Channel and Live Stream page.

Talking Points

The race for the 2025 PBR Australian National Championship

Just three regular-season events remain before the top cowboys in the country will head to Townsville for the 2025 PBR Australia Grand Finals. 

So far in 2025, National Standings leader Kurt Shephard has amassed 1,876.33 points.

Across the four rounds and the aggregate at the Grand Finals, there will be a maximum of 720 points available to any single rider. Currently, there is just one rider within striking distance of Shephard, and that is Luan Crystian Camara, who is 287.83 points adrift. 

There are still 1,040 points available across the events in Mackay, Kilkivan, and Tamworth, which means all riders ranked inside the top 30 on the Australian National Standings leaderboard have a mathematical chance of contending for the title. 

However, given Shephard's riding percentage, only riders within 1000 points heading into the Mackay Invitational are likely to be genuine contenders for the gold buckle. That leaves us with the top 5 - Shephard, Camara, Clint Glass, Zane Hall, Alison Aguiar and possibly No. 7-ranked Rylee Ward. 

With 360 points coming off the board this weekend, those chasing Shephard need to step it up, but a strong weekend from Mareeba talent could turn this into a two-horse race.

Bucking Bull of the Year Qualification

While many of the heavy hitters have already taken their required five qualifying trips for the season, there is still an opportunity for bulls to qualify, or improve their position in the Yeti Wild Bull of the Year Standings.

Alpha Blokes Warden (MJ/Keliher Bucking Bulls) still leads all qualifiers with an outstanding 5-out average bull score of 44.05 points.

Nirvana (Dittmann Bucking Bulls) completed his fifth qualifying trip in Nowra last weekend, and he has moved into second with an average mark of 43.65 points. Mooseys Moto Moto (MJ/Keliher Bucking Bulls and McGuire Partnership) has now slipped back to third on 43.40 points.

Following the Nowra Invitational, bulls must average at least 42.45 points per trip to enter the top 15 in the standings and qualify for selection in the Championship Round at the Grand Finals. Currently, Cohens Tequila (Dittmann Bucking Bulls), Last Strike (Dunne Bulls) and Without Warning (Dunne Bulls) all sit on 42.45 points and are ranked 13th through 15th, and all three will be in action this weekend.

We will also see bulls such as Quitting Time (Dittmann Bucking Bulls), Razor Sharp (CF7 Bucking Bulls) and Kinky Ninja (Keliher Bucking Bulls) complete their fifth trips of the year on Friday, so it will be interesting to see where they land in the standings.

Check out ‘The Morning Line’ on the PBR Australia website on Friday morning for in-depth analysis of the highlight matchups for Rounds 1 and 2 of the 2025 Monster Energy Mackay Invitational.

For the latest results, news and stats, stay tuned to PBRAustralia.com.au, follow the tour on Facebook (PBR Australia), Instagram (@PBRAustralia) and TikTok (@PBRAustralia) and subscribe to @ProBullRidersAust on YouTube for live events, replays and highlights.