Organisers of the event will be co-ordinating health checks for fans and players as they endeavour to promote healthy lifestyle choices among our country’s Indigenous population.

Members of the Wellington Aboriginal Corporation Health Service (WACHS) got together with Geoff Simpson from the Walgett Aboriginal Connection at Caltex Park on Monday to launch the initiative, which will incorporate a smoke-free environment.

“Life expectancy among our people is significantly less than it is among the rest of the population so we wanted to use the knockout as a way to get people thinking about their health,” Simpson said.

“This year’s knockout will be the 45th so it has built up to be something pretty big in the community, and rugby league is something that really brings people together so we thought the carnival would be a good tool to get our message out there.

“It’s also a good chance to show off our culture. Some people think culture is stuff that happened hundreds or thousands of years ago but we have our modern culture and football, and the role models and health benefits that come from it, plays a big role in that.”

Walgett won last year’s knockout at Raymond Terrace, and as such got the right to choose their venue for the 2015 event.

They chose Dubbo in anticipation of a large attendance, and the city’s ability to handle an influx of people, as well as the facilities available at Caltex Park.

“Every year the people that organise the event try and make their carnival the biggest and best, but we think with our combination of rugby league and promoting good health we can do that,” WACHS chief executive Darren Ah-See said.

“We’ve had a lot of great help from the government and some of the programs they have in place, and we want to be able to use our love of football to really reach out to people and help.

“We’ve had a lot of great financial support from the Department of Health and Ageing through their tackling smoking program and we want to be able to use our love of football to really reach out to people and help.

“We’re going to make the knockout smoke-free. If people want to watch the football they will be able to do it in a smoke-free environment and if people want to smoke they will have to go to a designated area somewhere else on the grounds.

“Even though it’s an Aboriginal knockout we want to make this a massive and attractive event for the entire community. 

“We want everyone to come along and we want everyone to have a good time and help promote a real sense of harmony and reconciliation within the community.”