Thousands flock to Birdsville in outback Queensland for annual races

It's the event billed as the ‘Melbourne Cup of the outback' – with thousands converging on Birdsville in far western Queensland for its annual races.

Transcript

00:00Yes, I'm here in Birdsville for the 143rd year of what's dubbed the Melbourne Cup of

00:09the Outback.

00:10And year after year, it continues to attract thousands of colourful characters to Birdsville,

00:16which is on the edge of the Simpson Desert in the far south-west of Queensland.

00:21It's Australia's most remote thoroughbred horse races, and this year is attracting record

00:27nominations of horses and trainers to come, and also they're expecting a crowd of up

00:32to 4,000.

00:34I've got Gary Brooke with me here, who's Vice President of the Birdsville Race Club.

00:39Gary, why is the Birdsville races so important to town here?

00:44Oh look, I think horse racing has been a part of Australia's history, and back in the day

00:50horses were stock and station horses and slowly evolved into something that's more professional.

00:56But it's so important to bring the community together, and really the financial and economic

01:02impact of the Birdsville races is huge, not just for Birdsville, but for the whole of regional

01:06Australia, because people do really come from everywhere.

01:08And as I said, it's in its 143rd year, but what might be a bit different about this year?

01:14This year, the countryside looks amazing.

01:17With the flooding that occurred earlier this year, it really has transformed Outback Australia.

01:22With the horses and the trainers, we've got more than double the fields that we had last

01:26year, more than double the trainers, more than double the jockeys, so the horse racing

01:31is going to be spectacular.

01:33This is also the final year of Fred Brophy's famous boxing troupe, so Australia's last travelling

01:38boxing troupe, and this is his last Birdsville races, so the drum will beat for the last time

01:44on Saturday night.

01:45And what can people expect over the next two days?

01:47Do people get dressed up for the races?

01:49Look, today's a bit of a fun day, so we have novelty fashions on the field, and there'll

01:54be groups of people.

01:55What's great is people come in their groups, and they've all got costumes and matching outfits,

02:00and so forth.

02:01So today's going to be a bit of fun.

02:03And then tomorrow, get serious with the fashions, and that's where people will be dolled up,

02:07ready for the Cup.

02:08We're standing in front of the iconic Birdsville pub now, which looks very dead, but we'll

02:14be absolutely pumping later.

02:16Everyone's getting ready to head out to the race track, and then we'll come back to the

02:19pub later.