BIRDSVILLE RACES, DYING - NOT YET GONE.
I've flown to the Birdsville races five times since 1992; my last visit before this year was 2017.
Always a great event, lots of planes (I would estimate 150-200 every year that I've been), lots of overland travellers too, and a great party atmosphere.
We flew in again this year (April 2022) for the 2021 postponed event. 12 light aircraft on the ground at one time was the most I saw in the 3 days we were there.
The bloke in Brisbane CTR refused to cancel my sartime, instead read me the number for CENSAR twice, yeah thanks mate, I know that but I don't have HF and I'm not sure if BDV has Optus, turned out it does so all ok. Not a good start to my Birdsville experience though.
Then had to download an app to get avgas, not mentioned in ERSA. No credit card or cash facility at all as stated in ERSA. If there'd been the queues at the bowser that I've seen in previous years it would have been pure chaos.
The security bloke who drove the "follow me" car was clueless about any of this. Where's your ASIC? Don't walk across the apron. He was friendly enough though, and gave us a lift to the gate by the pub, so I shouldn't be too critical.
There's no information on the website about alternative camping arrangements for those who fly in so I emailed the organisers pre event and was told we had to camp on the commons - a 20 minute walk from the pub loaded with camping gear in 38° heat. No mention of the caravan park.
You can stay in the "rent-a-tent" area if you like your tent to be pitched within an inch of your neighbours, and you'll pay more than you would for a motel room anywhere else. Chair, sleeping bag, lantern, esky, all extras.
We asked where we could camp when we arrived at the pub - no-one knew. We spotted the caravan park on the way through town and went there, a 5 min walk from the pub, across the road from the servo.
The staff at the park were happy and helpful and the amenities are fantastic, $40 per night for an unpowered site which I have absolutely no problem with.
There were only 3000 people there this year in stark contrast with the usual ±10 000, easy to get a beer at the pub, no big queues for food. Not many food vendors; pizza, kebab or fish and chips/chicken beef. All were really good though.
The pub had a temporary fence around it which included the area between the pub and the airport. In previous years the area outside the pub where Brophy's tent and all the food vendors are has been made a licensed area
so you could walk from the pub with a beer. Not this year. The security guard was friendly about it and advised us that we couldn't walk out with an open can, but we could get a takeaway and open it after we'd walked past him. It is QLD.
Fred Brophy put on just one show each night due to low crowd turn-out, still a fun time there.
All in all, still a good weekend. The camaraderie amongst visitors is still there; we all came a long way to be here; us from Kalgoorlie WA.
The removal of the SEZ (Special event zone) thus "no camping" rule at the airport was disappointing; I feel it's taken the "iconic" out of the Birdsville races and that the council is just not interested in having us there anymore. They say it's about risk aversity. It's about money.
They made a loss of $30k in 2019 due to this - they lost a lot more this time with 100 less aircraft; the aviation community spoke loudly about this change with a virtually complete no-show.
Pilots urge council to scrap under-wing camping ban at Birdsville Races - ABC News
It may be a different story in September this year when the regular meeting is on as far as crowd numbers go, but I'm having difficulty finding the motivation to go again.
I'm just thankful that I was fortunate enough to be there in the halcyon days of Birdsville when Australia was Australia, people were accountable for their own actions, and no-one was offended.
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