A cracking good livestock agent

"It all started when we were young kids," he said. "My brother Henry and sister Georgia Pitman are very good at it. I would compete for fun but I didn't have the natural talent that they had," Mr Pitman said.

Although he still loves the sport, these days it's more of a social hobby rather than something he trains for competitively. Mostly because he doesn't find as much time to practise working full time as a livestock agent for GDL Rockhampton.

He admits time may have gotten away from him in the past 12 months, with a move to Rockhampton and new role keeping him occupied.

"Being a livestock agent is a great lifestyle. I'm a sociable person so I like talking to and meeting people and just trying to get your client the best possible outcome. It's a good feeling when you pull something off," he said.

After attending boarding school in Toowoomba and working as a leading hand at properties across Queensland for Dawson River Pastoral Company, Mr Pitman was sold on life in the sunny state.

"I always wanted to move to Queensland, I just really like it up here. I'm really glad I made the move up," he said.

"I love Rocky, it's a great area and there's good people around here. There's a good atmosphere at the selling centres here, everyone gets along well and are mates."

The Pitman siblings were introduced to whip cracking through their family friends in Gunnedah, the Wicks family, who Mr Pitman said were all really talented at the sport and taught them a lot.

As a young fella, Mr Pitman went on to compete in the sport at a competitive level, attending state titles in four states and the Australian titles.

"I like it for the fact that it's a very old sport and it's not very well-known, and it's a completely Australian sport," Mr Pitman said.

Competitors use whips made of kangaroo hide, which Mr Pitman said was softer and more malleable than cow hide, but was still very strong.

"When you crack a whip made out of kangaroo hide it doesn't buck or kick back like a cow hide would, which means they're very good for competition cracking and they fall very well, whereas a red or cow hide whip is good as a yard or working whip," he said.

Leather craft is also deeply tied to the sport, with custom stockwhips plaited for competitors by whipmakers.

"My grandfather was good with leather, he plaited whips, hat bands, belts, pouches and all sorts of things. We have a wallaby leather whip at home that my grandfather plaited," Mr Pitman said.

Often competitors will have four or five pairs of whips, which they alternate between, depending on what trick they were performing.

"In some tricks there will be a lot of cracks in it, like a machine gun, and you need a little whip to do them.

"Then there are other tricks like the Queensland crossover where you want a nice long pair of whips to really reach the cracker out there and crack it out wide."

The sport takes a lot of training and practise, with Mr Pitman likening it to "playing a musical instrument".

In addition to learning from friends, there were useful videos online, but the best way to brush up on skills was by attending competitions.

"They're usually multi-day events and so there will be a lot of teaching each others, cracking whips, learning how to plait and do leather work," he said.

Mr Pitman hoped to keep the sport alive because it was "very family-orientated" and did this by attending country shows with his siblings and running smaller competitions for young kids.

"When we can, we run a little bit of a whip cracking competition and get the kids involved there and get a bit of interest generated.

"It's not a very big sport but it's growing bigger and bigger. There are new faces that show up every year," he said.