While the recent easing of travel restrictions has been welcomed by many grey nomads, the cancellation of September’s iconic Birdsville’s Races is yet another reminder that it’s going to be a long time until it’s the Big Lap as usual.
The Outback race meeting had been one of the last major events still standing on the Queensland calendar, but organisers today scrapped the event, which draws thousands of visitors to the tiny Queensland town of Birdsville.
The Courier-Mail reports that next year’s event has been pencilled in for September 3 and 4.
The newspaper says that the Birdsville Races has only been cancelled once in its 138-year history and has even been held without horses when flooding rains made the track unraceable.
Ironically, the only other cancellation was also due to a virus – the equine flu crisis of 2007.
Vice President of the Birdsville Race Club Gary Brook said it was disappointing to call the event off.
“It is with heavy hearts that we have made the difficult decision not to stage the Birdsville Races this year,” he said. “As much as we were holding onto the hope that we could run them, we’re at a point where we’ve had to concede defeat.”
He said the health of patrons, and those who live in Outback Queensland, was of paramount importance.
“It is impossible to know what the status with Covid-19 will be come September,” he said.
