Birdsville [Dateline 15 June -  16 June 2006]

What a bloody ripper!!  Birdsville, and in particular the Birdsville pub is an Australian institution - an integral part of our culture.  Located in outback South West Queensland, just north of the border with South Australia it sits on the edge of the Simpson Desert.  Birdsville was originally established as it sat on the stockmans route for mustering the cattle from the stations in Queensland down into South Australia - and until Federation in 1901 it served as a stopover and also as a tax collection point as the cattlemen passed through. 

We decided to fly from Quilpie to Birdsville rather than subject ourselves and Bruce to 1400km of outback driving, of which about 550km is unsealed road.  Hege was very brave to agree to fly in a small 19 seater propeller plane, and 3 hours later (one stopover in Windorah - which means "big bird" in Aboriginal) we arrived at Birdsville - a town of 100 people and easily traversed by foot in 10 minutes.  The plane deposited us about 100 metres from the pub, and 200 metres from the caravan park where we rented a cabin for the night.  The following pictures and verbiage describes our brief, but thoroughly enjoyable (and somewhat drunken) excursion into the outback.....

Click here to go Back to Home Page

.

Quilpie Airport - where's the lounge!?!?!

Here we are at the Quilpie Airport.... Chris stands in the small cabin inspecting the flight schedule and wonders where the Frequent Flyers Lounge is......