Arabic version: سباقات بيردسفيل تستقبل حافلات محمّلة بزوار المناطق النائية

According to ABC News, Dubbo-based comedy content creator Robert Wharram has brought 47 travellers from New South Wales to the Birdsville Races in outback Queensland. The group travelled on two 57-seat coaches after interest in the trip, promoted through Wharram’s Wiradjuri Rabbs Entertainment social media page, grew from an initial idea to take 10 people.

Wharram said the first bus sold out within four days. With support from a major sponsor, he said the group would donate $100 per person to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, rounding the contribution up to $5,000 for presentation on the first day of the Birdsville Carnival.

Traveller Tim Morgan, a fitter and turner from Wollongong, said the journey had given the group a chance to support small towns along the route. He said his favourite stop was Windorah, where yabby races were held in the lead-up to the Birdsville Races. The group also held a share in a racehorse, with any winnings intended to support people with motor neurone disease.

The races arrive after a difficult season for outback tourism, marked by flooding, road closures, event cancellations and fuel-price spikes linked to the war in Iran. Birdsville Races vice-president Gary Brook said local businesses were excited to receive visitors and that reaching about 3,500 attendees would be a successful result, though he did not expect the event to reach 4,000.

Birdsville Hotel co-owner Courtney Ellis said the closure of the Birdsville Track had affected travel from South Australia and Victoria. He described the route as a major tourist thoroughfare. Ellis said tourism was slow early in the season, but sightseers arrived from mid-to-late May as flood-fed greenery transformed the desert landscape.