After an unforgettable 2025 season that rewrote the record books, PBR Australia is set to buck even bigger in 2026, with more events, new towns, the launch of an all-new Challenger Series, and over a million dollars in prize money up for grabs across the year.

The 2025 season pushed the limits of the sport:

• Mareeba superstar Kurt Shephard claimed the coveted PBR Australian Championship Golden Buckle, finishing with 2,263.33 points and taking home over $180,000 in season earnings.
• Brazilian sensation Luan Crystian Camara capped off an extraordinary debut year as both 2025 National Runner-Up and Rookie of the Year, ending with 1,910.50 points.
• Clermont’s Brady Fielder, No. 3 rider in the world, delivered a global first, becoming the only rider in PBR history to reach 100 qualified rides in a single season.
• And on the bull front, Alpha Blokes Warden (MJ/Keliher Bucking Bulls) dominated as Bucking Bull of the Year, remaining unridden all season.

Similarly, the 2025 PBR Australia Can-Am Junior Academy Series wrapped up in spectacular fashion, delivering edge-of-your-seat action and showcasing the next generation of bull riding talent. In the Pee Wee Division, Chase Berry from Gunnedah (NSW) won the series, while fellow NSW young rider Nash Goddard from Glendon Brook won the Junior Division. Chase Wieland from Gympie in Queensland won the Senior series buckle and Tamworth’s Liam Birks took out the Rising Star title.

PBR Australia’s 2026 calendar has fired out of the chute today with a full-strength schedule spanning PBR Monster Energy Tour, PBR Origin, Touring Pro, Junior and the debut Challenger Series, visiting cities, regions, and rodeo heartlands across the nation. Towns and cities on the full 2026 PBR Australia tour include:

Queensland (QLD): Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns, Mackay, Beaudesert, Toowoomba, Burnett Heads, Caboolture and Sandstone Point.

New South Wales (NSW): Sydney, Newcastle, Nowra, Hawkesbury, Coffs Harbour, Orange, Tamworth and Scone.

Victoria (VIC): Melbourne, Gippsland and Traralgon.

South Australia (SA): Adelaide and Marrabel.

“With the finale of 2025 season finishing on a such a great note and Kurt Shephard breaking not only a PBR Australia but also an Australian Rodeo record in single career earnings in the discipline of bull riding , 2026 is shaping up to be a hotly contested season,” PBR Australia Managing Director Glen Young said.

“2026 will see over a million dollars in posted prizemoney and bonuses awarded to cowboys across a season that will run from Dec 31 2025, through to the second weekend in November with over 29 events scheduled from as far north as Cairns right down the east coast to Adelaide.”

“The season will see us return to Melbourne John Cain Arena and the Adelaide Entertainment Centre with majors and newly introduced tour spots with Coffs Harbour, Traralgon and St Gregory’s College in Campbelltown, in addition to this we will be returning to the Supercars Townsville 500.”

“It’s going to be a hectic season from start to finish, which is going to see our regular road warriors back on tour as well as a number of internationals looking to come and participate chasing the Gold Buckle and $100k year-end bonus, this could potentially be the season where new records are broken.”

The Monster Energy Tour season opens in Scone on February 7, before a two-day buck fest at Beaudesert on February 27 and 28. PBR will storm into Melbourne’s John Cain Arena and the Adelaide Entertainment Centre for the first time since 2019 and will make a debut in Coffs Harbour in September.

The fiercely contested PBR Origin Series continues in 2026 and after the Blues made history in taking the title for the first time this year, the mighty Maroons are out for revenge – bull riding style! It begins in Newcastle on May 30, before Brisbane on June 6 and then the finale in Sydney at the TikTok Entertainment Centre on August 1.

The season will once again end where legends are made, in Townsville, home of Australia’s biggest weekend in bull riding over November 13 and 14.

Grassroots development expands with more events and larger fields in 2026, continuing Australia’s reputation for producing some of the world’s toughest young riders through the acclaimed PBR Australia Can-Am Junior Academy.

In a major evolution for development pathways, 2026 introduces the all-new PBR Australia Challenger Series. Designed as the crucial stepping stone between the Can-Am Junior Academy and the elite Monster Energy Tour Series, the Challenger Series will operate as the proving ground for junior riders old enough for MET but not yet ready, enforce an earnings-based progression rule – once riders hit a set earnings threshold, they must graduate to the MET and give Australia’s hottest up-and-coming athletes a fast-track route into big-money, big-arena competition.

WHERE AND WHEN TO SEE AUSTRALIA’S BEST BULL RIDERS IN 2026

 All event detail can be found here: Schedule — The Professional Bull Riders.