| abstract | - Australians are mad about ferret racing. Mad as a cut snake, in fact. Every major city and small town has several semi-legitimate ferret-racing cartels, usually run out of the carpark of the local RSL club. Ferret racing's popularity stems mainly from the fact that there is drinking involved. The fact that it gets you away from the wife and is an easy way to make substantial amounts of beer money is simply the head on the schooner as far as Australians are concerned. Ferrets are generally raced through long lengths of transparent aggie pipe (flexible agricultural drainage pipe), which are often arranged in shapes based on a theme, such as the layout of the Bathurst V8 Supercars track (on a 1:64 scale), the Albert Park Formula One grand prix track (full size), and the shape of Germaine Greer's map of Tassie. To keep things interesting, the best ferrets are handicapped in imaginative ways, with blindfolds, concrete boots, a two-pound ball and chain and combinations thereof being just a few examples. Betting on ferrets is not restricted to cash - sheep stations, chainsaws, pineapple harvests and nights with the missus frequently change hands at both city and country meetings.
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