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Destinations > On Your Marks
On Your Marks
Issue: July 2009
Words and Photos by Joanne Lane
If you're planning an Outback trip this year, there's no better time to go than late winter for some of the nation's most outlandish festivals. Although getting there is really part of the adventure.
From racing yabbies to horses, throwing watermelons to opal parties it's on your marks and go for some of the remotest events in Queensland, and none more so than the iconic Birdsville Cup. It's the land that time forgot, the back of beyond. A harsh and relentless environment of shifting sands, perspiration, flies and broken vehicle axles. But for some reason 5000 people make it through these wastes every year in the first week of September, by every form of conceivable transport, for a horserace in the middle of nowhere.
The Birdsville Races are sometimes referred to as the Melbourne Cup of the Outback and are one of those quintessential, quirky, Aussie bush events of the do-before-you-die category. They are held in one of Australia's most isolated towns on the fringes of the Simpson Desert in southwest Queensland.
People come by campervan, 4WD, light plane, bus and coach tour to sample a weekend of frivolity in which the actual races are an addition to the fun. Travelling boxing tents, rodeos, booze, sun, dunes, rough roads, museums, galleries and friendly crowds form the non-stop entertainment that starts well before and ends well after the last horse has left the turf.
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The action culminates in the Cup, on a racetrack so dry and dusty the jockeys are almost indiscernible in the dirt and haze churned up. Of course the Birdsville adventure is as much the journey as the destination and starts long before the desert gibbers.
From any major city there is tarmac to be traversed before you get to the final unsealed access roads that include the Birdsville Development Road (from Windorah, Queensland), Birdsville Track (from Maree, South Australia), Diamantina/Eyre Development Road (from Boulia, Queensland) and the French Line (from Dalhousie, Northern Territory). Each can be challenging depending on road conditions.
For me the most direct route from Brisbane was the Warrego Highway to the Birdsville Development Road, a 1600km stretch across the breadth of Queensland from the coast to the Simpson's largest dunes.
The four-day journey was like a warm up for the races, a taste of rural Queensland before I got to the back country, meeting the local characters and skipping from one sun-crazed event to the next.
The first 760km stretch on the Warrego passed through the quiet agricultural centres of the Darling Downs like Chinchilla, famed for its bi-annual Melon Festival in February where you ski, slide and bungy on watermelons. While in Miles (340km) you can wander the fascinating Historical Town and be transported back to early pioneering days with period buildings featuring a school, church, bank and post office.
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Words and Photos by Joanne Lane
If you're planning an Outback trip this year, there's no better time to go than late winter for some of the nation's most outlandish festivals. Although getting there is really part of the adventure.
From racing yabbies to horses, throwing watermelons to opal parties it's on your marks and go for some of the remotest events in Queensland, and none more so than the iconic Birdsville Cup. It's the land that time forgot, the back of beyond. A harsh and relentless environment of shifting sands, perspiration, flies and broken vehicle axles. But for some reason 5000 people make it through these wastes every year in the first week of September, by every form of conceivable transport, for a horserace in the middle of nowhere.
The Birdsville Races are sometimes referred to as the Melbourne Cup of the Outback and are one of those quintessential, quirky, Aussie bush events of the do-before-you-die category. They are held in one of Australia's most isolated towns on the fringes of the Simpson Desert in southwest Queensland.
People come by campervan, 4WD, light plane, bus and coach tour to sample a weekend of frivolity in which the actual races are an addition to the fun. Travelling boxing tents, rodeos, booze, sun, dunes, rough roads, museums, galleries and friendly crowds form the non-stop entertainment that starts well before and ends well after the last horse has left the turf.
read on below advertisement
The action culminates in the Cup, on a racetrack so dry and dusty the jockeys are almost indiscernible in the dirt and haze churned up. Of course the Birdsville adventure is as much the journey as the destination and starts long before the desert gibbers.
From any major city there is tarmac to be traversed before you get to the final unsealed access roads that include the Birdsville Development Road (from Windorah, Queensland), Birdsville Track (from Maree, South Australia), Diamantina/Eyre Development Road (from Boulia, Queensland) and the French Line (from Dalhousie, Northern Territory). Each can be challenging depending on road conditions.
For me the most direct route from Brisbane was the Warrego Highway to the Birdsville Development Road, a 1600km stretch across the breadth of Queensland from the coast to the Simpson's largest dunes.
The four-day journey was like a warm up for the races, a taste of rural Queensland before I got to the back country, meeting the local characters and skipping from one sun-crazed event to the next.
The first 760km stretch on the Warrego passed through the quiet agricultural centres of the Darling Downs like Chinchilla, famed for its bi-annual Melon Festival in February where you ski, slide and bungy on watermelons. While in Miles (340km) you can wander the fascinating Historical Town and be transported back to early pioneering days with period buildings featuring a school, church, bank and post office.
next page »
