The blur that was the Races

The catchphrase for the Birdsville Race advertising is "The dust never settles".

The races were a little over a week ago now, and it's hard to believe it happened at all, except for the persistent flat feeling now that it's all over after the weeks of build-up for the biggest event in the Birdsville year.

The Bakery was frantically flat out, Dusty's friends and rellos did a fantastic job. I made coffees for four hours solid one morning, and bacon and eggs for three hours solid the next morning, so I missed out on a lot of what was going on in town and at the track. We did pizzas Thurs-Sun evenings as well, so the days were long, and it didn't help that I had the flu through most of it. But it was fun, and very exciting, lots of adrenalin, and a very definite party atmosphere all round.

Normie Rowe came in for a pie and coffee, as did Bill Peach. Tom Kruse (now 94 and in a wheelchair — he was in Birdsville to unveil a bust in honour of himself) and a bunch of dignitaries came for lunch — they sat in the back of the Bakery while the craziness continued out the front. The TV crew for the Australian Top Gear show came in to film Dusty on Friday morning. I think there was a group from the ABC in as well. Dusty was very nervous for the Getaway crowd the day before, but was rapidly becoming quite blasé by this stage. He went out to Big Red with the Top Gear guys on Friday morning — they'd driven a very expensive Audi sports car slowly up the Birdsville track and then took it out and drove it up Big Red! It came back rather battered and scratched. Keep an eye out for it on TV ....

Went to the pub after work to check it out, the place was pumping with live music, and lots of people, mostly talking, but quite a few energetic dancers in front of the stage out back. Fred Brophy's boxing tent was pulling them in too, lots of drumming and spruiking to get the punters in. We went in, it wasn't as blood-thirsty as I thought it might be, and watched as a couple of the young barmen from the pub got flattened. No major damage done, and some very enthusiastic encouragement from the crowd.

Dusty gave me Saturday off, which astounded me considering how busy things were, so I got to dress up and go to the Races with Evan, his sister Helen and her friend Therese, who were staying with us. Managed to lose some money on the first race, won some of it back on the last race. The weather was fabulous, blue skies and 30 degrees, and not too many flies. But lots and lots of people. And police. I went back into town to pick up Theresa when she got a break from the Bakery, and got breathalysed on the way there and again on the way back 10 minutes later. When we left at the end of the day, the traffic queue was long, as they were breathalysing every 3–4 drivers, including Evan. Amazingly, only one person in the whole weekend returned a positive reading.

People started leaving first thing Sunday morning, we were still very busy at the Bakery as lots of people wanted breakfast before they headed off. By lunchtime, most of the stalls and hot food vans were gone, and by Monday, Birdsville was back to it's usual sleepy little self. So we shut the Bakery after lunch and all went and had a barbecue by the river for Dusty's 60th birthday.

PS Today's weather: Hot, very windy and very dusty. Dirty grey sky, horizon gone, "raised dust". 32 degrees today, 36.8 a couple of days ago. Still over 30 degrees when we went to bed, so we left all the doors and windows open. We were woken to the roaring of wind at 2 am, so scampered over the already dusty floors to shut everything up.

The house of pain — Fred Brophy has the last travelling boxing tent in Australia.


Sideshow Alley — normally a vacant lot opposite the Oval.


How to stand out in a crowd ....


Welcome to the Birdsville Races!


Our bookies — Therese and Helen's friends Terry and Effie.


And the winner is ......


This pair won the Best Dressed Couple in the Fashions in the Field competition.


The caravan park was chockers.


People fly in and camp under their plane's wings.


Happy Birthday, Dusty! (far right)