The Melbourne Cup comes to town

Ex-Melbourne Cup-winning jockey John Marshall poses with the Cup on the front of one of Tom Kruse's Birdsville Mail trucks, a 1940s Chevrolet Blitz. The current owner drove it up from Quorn (South Australia) for the occasion.

Not the race, the actual Cup!

The Emirates promotions people decided to raise some awareness of the Cup's history by taking the Cup on a tour of outback Queensland, and Birdsville was one of the towns to be honoured. Quite a few people around the area are involved in racing (hence the Birdsville Cup) and one local horse, Pandie Sun, came third in the 1957 Melbourne Cup.

The Cup and its entourage of three plus another three Channel 7 camera crew flew in a couple of Sundays ago, made an appearance at the Pub, did a tour of all the businesses of the town (five plus the school), visited the race course, mounted one of Tom Kruse's old mail trucks for a parade with some locals on their horses and retired to the Wirrari Centre for drinks and finger food, and speeches.

Locals had provided a lot of racing memorabilia to decorate the Wirrari Centre, including an impressive array of cups, lots of photographs and a colouring competition from the school kids. There was a great turnup, despite several of the locals heading off for a wedding in Charleville that weekend. Everyone had their photo taken with the Cup, and the star jockey, Alan Marshall, said he thought it didn't get photographed that much at the actual Melbourne Cup Races.

Someone suggested the Cup should go out to Big Red to be photographed a bit more, and since they were due to depart at 8 am the next morning, several intrepid locals volunteered to take the official party and the Cup out for the sunrise. We all gathered at the Bakery at 5.30 am and had coffee to fortify ourselves, then roared off in the semi-darkness and got to Big Red just in time to set up. Lots more pictures were taken, then we jumped back in the cars and delivered all safely to their plane for their next visit to Jundah.

PS Weather today: 42.8 degrees C (109.4 F) at 12.44 pm, overcast and windy. There looks to be rain falling in the distance, but it's probably so hot none of it is making it to the ground. Yesterday, 42.2 hottest, coolest overnight 26 degrees at 3 am. We spend a lot of time inside with the aircon .... the sparrows and crows sit around outside panting with their beaks open. The kites float overhead on the thermals.

John (left) and Brian, the publican, with the Cup at the Pub.


John Marshall (holding cup) poses with John Menzies, owner of the Birdsville Working Museum, and his mule Bella. Bella is a very large animal — she is a cross between a donkey and a Belgian Draught horse.


My moment with the Cup ....


The Cup Parade sets out.


Locals from the parade on their horses pose in front of the crowd at the pub.


Local school kids get in on the action.


Mixing it with the locals at the pub .....


A selection of cups and photographs of winners from Pandie Station.


Jane, from Pandie, won the best hat prize.


Filming the cup against the sunrise on Big Red. Bigger than Ben Hur, really ....


The Cup in all it's glory.