The Birdsville Races are

horse races Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

held each year in September in the

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, town of

Birdsville Birdsville is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. In the the locality of Birdsville had a population of 110 people. It is a popular tourist destination with many people using it as a starting point acro ...

. Funds are raised in aid of the

Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), commonly known as the Flying Doctor, is an air medical service in Australia. It is a non-profit organisation that provides emergency and primary health care services for those living in rural, remote an ...

. The population is swelled from about 100 to around 7,000 people for the two-day event. As Birdsville is very remote, many travellers come by air and hundreds of aircraft fill the town's airstrip. The town of

Quilpie Quilpie ( ) is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Quilpie, Queensland, Australia. In the , Quilpie had a population of 595 people. The town is the administrative centre of the Shire of Quilpie, Quilpie ...

celebrates the event by welcoming travellers who are heading westwards to Birdsville by road. In 2009 as part of the

Q150 Q150 was the sesquicentenary (150th anniversary) of the Separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859. Separation established the Colony of Queensland which became the State of Queensland in 1901 as part of the Federation of Australia. Q15 ...

celebrations, the Birdsville Races were announced as one of the

Q150 Icons The Queensland's Q150 Icons list of cultural icons was compiled as part of Q150 celebrations in 2009 by the Government of Queensland, Australia. It represented the people, places and events that were significant to Queensland's first 150 years. ...

of Queensland for its role as an "event and festival".

History

The first races were run in the town in 1882. The club that convened the meeting was originally called the ''Birdsville Amateur Turf Club''. It later changed to the ''Diamantina Amateur Race Club'' as it also convened the Betoota race meeting. In 1990 it separated from Betoota and became the ''Birdsville Race Club Incorporated''. The 2007 races were affected by a national outbreak of

horse flu Equine influenza (horse flu) is the disease caused by strains of influenza A that are enzootic in horse species. Equine influenza occurs globally, previously caused by two main strains of virus: equine-1 (H7N7) and equine-2 (H3N8). The OIE now cons ...

. The 2009 event attracted a crowd estimated at around 7,000, requiring 20 extra police to be temporarily posted to the small town. The 2010 races were cancelled, the first cancellation in the events history of 128 years, due to flooding. The races were also cancelled in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...

. In 2021 they were also "called off" and rescheduled to April 2022. The vice-president of Birdsville Race Club, Gary Brook, said: "... more than 85 per cent of ticket holders hailed from locations unable to currently travel to regional Queensland due to

lockdowns A lockdown is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks (such as COVID-19) that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison ...

or government advice."

Races

In the past the Birdsville races have included: * a seven- pound handicap or penalty for professional riders * special races for horses bred within 250 miles of Birdsville. There were also separate races for horses fed with

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

and those fed on grass. * prizemoney for the cup has varied from 500 pounds in the 1880s to 50 pounds in the 1940s, A$5,000 in 1982 and $25,000 in 2002. * the cup distance has been 1 mile or 1,600 metres since the first race, in 1882. In 1949 and 1950 the ‘Hospital Handicap’ (1 mile) was run in lieu of the Cup. Meetings were held then to raise funds for the construction of the Birdsville Hospital. The annual race meeting is now held to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Birdsville Clinic. * races were once started by the drop of a hat and later by strand barriers. They are now started with barrier stalls. * the old course was three miles to the west of the town. There used to be steeplechase races on this course. The course was abandoned as it was prone to flooding.

References

External links

* *

Oliver Herbrich Oliver Herbrich (born 1961 in Munich) is a German filmmaker working as author, film director and producer. He is associated with the New German Cinema movement in the 1980s. From 2016, his films are digitally remastered and re-released in the ''Fi ...

Filmarchive
Documemtary on the centenary race in 1982
(Filmwebsite) {{coord, -25.917, 139.383, type:landmark_region:AU-QLD, display=title Recurring events established in 1882 Horse races in Australia Horse racing meetings Sports competitions in Queensland Tourist attractions in Queensland Central West Queensland 1882 establishments in Australia

History

Races

See also

References

External links