Birdsville in Outback Queensland
Outback towns are the life-blood of the Outback. They form the heart of Outback communities and their social hub. Theyâ??re also full of characters â?? like publicans, drovers, shearers, smithies and the Aboriginal stockmen; along with the station owners and graziers who come to town to stock up on supplies.
Itâ??s here youâ??ll get the opportunity to immerse yourself in the life of Outback locals and meet some real Aussie characters. Revel in the mateship, have a good belly laugh and join in some truly Aussie events such as fundraising for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Buy a ticket in a meat raffle, play â??Two-upâ?? , or place a bet on a cane toad race.
Youâ??ll find our Outback towns out past the spinifex of Inglewood, past the cactus near Goondiwindi, out beyond Moree where the galahs peck at the cottonseed by the side of the road. Way, way out where the fences and telegraph poles have ceased to be; where the horizon stretches out to touch a pale-blue sky. The â??Outbackâ?? may be hard to define, but youâ??ll know it when you see it.
Red dust roads across the country lead to shanty towns full of character and heritage, where the locals wear Akubra hats and riding boots. Our incredible history has been recorded in towns such as Longreach, Winton, Blackall and Barcaldine in central Queensland, and the NSW country towns of Warialda and Moree which, with their wooden and tin shopfront awnings, resemble ‘Wild West’ towns of the 1800s.
Our sheep and wheat growing country is full of straightlaced retro towns such as Manilla, Condoblin and Goondiwindi which seem to have been preserved from the 1960s.
There are the iconic mining towns of Broken Hill, Silverton, Tennant Creek and Kalgoorlie, and the one-horse towns like William Creek, Birdsville and Daly Waters, which are little more than a pub, a petrol pump and a few houses.
Thereâ??s Birdsville, the tiny settlement on the edge of the Simpson Desert at the northern end of the notorious and dangerous Birdsville Track. And Tenterfield, the birthplace of Peter Allen, the â??Boy From Ozâ?? who sang about the Tenterfield Saddler.
Then thereâ??s Bourke, the dry and dusty outback town in far north-west NSW which provoked author Henry Lawson to write after his visit in 1893, â??If you know Bourke, you know Australiaâ?. ‘Back oâ?? Bourke’ is more than a geographic location; itâ??s part of the Australian language and part of our folklore. So, pack up your swag and come out the back of beyond to the â??back of beyond’.