Festival frolics in the outback
Where else can you splash in an artesian bath, frock up for the races, chat to a rodeo cowboy, run through a mud bath and fossick for dinosaur bones?
Queensland’s outback comes alive from April to October as cooler weather brings travellers seeking experiences you can only have far from city lights.
The outback tourist season’s opening event is the Dirt n Dust Festival in Julia Creek, 645km west of Townsville along the Overlanders Way, and an adventurous seventeen-and-a-half-hour road trip (1,630km) north-west of Brisbane.
April temperatures in this tiny town (population 400) range around 32°C.
Still, the dry heat is surprisingly comfortable for an early morning adventure race, race day, rodeo and dancing under the stars. Add in the Best Butts Competition, which started as a crowd saver in the early 1990s when the festival lost power, and you have the iconic Dirt n Dust Festival.
The dust flies at the Julia Creek Races. Photo Matt Williams.
It works like this:
You start on Friday night with a few drinks at the rodeo and some outdoor dancing. Depending on how many drinks, you might enter the Best Butt Competition!
On Saturday it’s up bright and shiny to run the five, 10 or 15km courses in the DND Adventure Run.
You will climb over hay bales, crawl through tyres and wallow in the mud, and that’s the easy part.
By midday, you must remove all mud and get frocked up for the Artesian Express Race Day at Julia Creek Turf Club, one of the richest race meetings in the north west.
Australian Age of Dinosaurs near Winton. Photo Tourism and Events Queensland.
Chat with the locals or take your chance in Fashions on the Field. Those with stamina will head afterwards to Dirt n Dust Central for more rodeo, dancing and the Best Butt Competition finals.
Two locals you should meet are Donald and Duncan, rare Julia Creek dunnarts who are fed daily (10am and 2pm) for those visiting At The Creek Visitor Information Centre. Dunnarts are the same size as a small rat but much cuter.
Stay at Julia Creek Caravan Park, where the award-winning Artesian Bathhouse’s mineral waters will soak away your worries while sampling a delicious charcuterie platter as dusk descends.
You will need to drive 273km to Winton to find those dinosaur bones at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs.
First, take a tour of the fossil laboratory to see bones emerging from the dirt, then learn how dinosaurs once roamed this region and see their footprints in the March of the Titanosaurs.
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Follow with a scenic helicopter flight with Outback From Above over the plains, rifts and waterfalls of Bladensburg National Park.
Winton’s Waltzing Matilda Centre will tug at your heartstrings with its stories of the outback and leave you with a delightful Waltzing Matilda earworm.
Stay at the iconic, art deco North Gregory Hotel, Australia’s ‘Queen of the Outback’.Established in 1879 and rebuilt several times, it has links to Waltzing Matilda, Qantas, and former US president Lyndon B. Johnson. Look out for the glass-etched doors by Daphne Mayo.
Winton to Longreach is a quick (in country terms) 179km drive.
Here, you’ll find the Qantas Founders Museum plus a new Pre-Flight Breakfast Tour of the hangar built for Qantas in 1922.
Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre in Longreach. Photo Tourism and Events Queensland.
Lachie Cossor’s Stockman’s Live Show at the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame is a fun look at a stockman’s life with horses, dogs, sheep and a performing bull.
Reconnect with the romance of rail with Outback Aussie Tours’ new Outback Rail Adventure.
Stay at Saltbush Retreat, where chic style meets authentic country with three outdoor artesian baths and dine on fine local cuisine at Harry’s Restaurant. Every day is an adventure in the outback.
The author travelled as a guest of Tourism & Events Queensland, Queensland Destination Events Program.
Learn more about outback Queensland’s calendar of events.
STORY KERRY HEANEY
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