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Published: June 18th 2016
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Well this one has been on the bucket list for a very long time. Birdsville, a small town located on land traditionally owned by the Wangkanguru People, in the Channel Country of Central West Queensland. It is 1,590 kilometres west of Brissy and is located on the edge of the Simpson Desert. With a current population of about 100 people (nine of which attend the local school) the place swells to an amazing 7-8000 people. Initially we had a bit of a crew coming with us but one by one they all pulled out so it was a good thing that we had opted to go on an arranged tour. Return travel on a coach, entrance to both days of racing, camping in town and breakfast and dinner included for the whole trip wasn't a bad deal at all. We drove out to Peachester where we left our car and boarded the bus bound for Birdsville and a couple of days of country racing at it's very finest.
Traveling along the Warrego highway we made our way to Dalby for our first stop for lunch, also traveling through Chinchilla, Roma and Mitchell, we stopped in at Charleville RSL for dinner
at about 8pm that night. Having about two hours here for Dinner and a quick play on the pokies, we were back on the bus in no time on our way (only stopping for the occasional toilet break for those who had too much beer & wine with dinner). It was a tough trip through the night, the surface of the road not the best in outback oz and the constant breaking for the occasional roo that crossed our path of which quite a few met their demise unfortunately, if only they could evolve to be repelled by the light and not attracted to it poor little blighters. We didn't get much sleep but we arrived at the track right on dawn to see it in all its dusty glory, we stopped for some pics then onto the campsite in town which was another 4km away. After setting up 'camp city' we wandered into town to have a look around (town pretty much consists of only two main roads) and get a pic of the world famous Fred Brophy's Boxing Tent and the Birdsville pub before the town swelled too much and people were everywhere.
We purchased our tickets
for the world famous, last of its kind, Fred Brophy's boxing troupe which was on both nights. That afternoon right next to the pub was the Equine Races which consist of plush toy horses on a sheet of cardboard joined to a rope and can, they evolved many years ago when it rained so much Birdsville flooded and no real equines could be transported in and so the show went on with the toy equivalent ones and have stayed a traditional part of the races ever since. Curry camel pies were our staple food for lunch, they were pretty good but spicy so maybe that masked the real taste anyway. After the fake horsey races we boarded the bus again and headed to Big Red, a 36.5m above sea level unique sandhill which sits just at the beginning of the Simpson Desert. From here we climbed to the top and took in the sunset while being entertained by all the forbys trying to make it up and over and watched the sunset over this big beauty of a dune drinking champagne and eating nibblies.
The Friday was actually the first day of racing so we got ready and ventured
down to the track and within 10 mins of being there I spotted Pauline Hanson getting amongst the crowd and I couldnt resist getting a pic with her! Our good friend Jase and his dad Noel did the mission trip in their own truck so we arranged to catch up with them at the track and then again that night at the boxing tent. It was first in best dressed as far as the seats go so we lined up early and from there, Fred comes out and matches up his boxers with any eager beavers in the crowd and then its on! We managed to get really good seats and Pauline happened to be a couple of rows away from us, even taking on the task as ring girl for the first round! The fights were pretty full on with the visitors giving it their all while Fred's boxers bounced around getting few hits in but mainly letting the challengers wear themselves out (apparently its quite rare for his crew to lose). We carried on for a wee while at the local pub after the fights but then it was back to the safari tent for a good nights
sleep before the big cup day.
Up early for brekky with the rest of the group then it was time for the glad rags (and cowboy hats) to go on then off to the track for day two of the races. Because all the horses have so far to come for the event, most of them back up and race the next day as well and sometimes twice in a day, its pretty hectic in all that dust! We met up with Jase and Noel again for a few drinkies and hung out with the rest of our group we came over with, we got lucky with the people in our tour, a great bunch of people all ages and we did nothing but laugh the whole time. We carried on the festivities back at the camp city that night and Sam went and watched another session of boxing at the tent.
No sleep in for the last day, we were up, had brekky and all packed up to go nice and early with a 24hr bus trip ahead of us. We got to see more of the outback on the way home due to it being daytime
and it gave us the chance to capture some pics of the vast outback lands but also on a sad note, the many roos that lost their lives due to the thousands of vehicles lay by the side of the road. We stopped in Betoota, Quilpie and Windorah on the way home, and Charleville again for dinner at the RSL. Interesting to walk around the smaller towns and see how the real country folk live. We arrived back on the sunny coast early monday completely exhausted but with some damn good memories, and we are both pretty sure it won't be the last time we make the dusty trip out to Birdsville.
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