The Birdsville Races are horse races

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

 held each year in September in the Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, town of Birdsville

Birdsville, Queensland

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. Funds are raised in aid of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia

Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia

The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia is an emergency and primary health care service for those living in rural, remote and regional areas of Australia...

. The population is swelled from about 100 to around 6,000 people for the two-day event.

As Birdsville is very remote, many travellers come by air and hundreds of aircraft fill the town's airstrip. The town of Quilpie

Quilpie, Queensland

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 celebrates the event by welcoming travellers who are heading westwards to Birdsville by road.

History

The first races were run in the town in 1882. The club that convened the meeting was originally called the Birdsville Amateur Turf Club. It later changed to the Diamantina Amateur Race Club as it also convened the Betoota race meeting. In 1990 it separated from Betoota and became the Birdsville Race Club Incorporated.

The 2007 races were affected by a national outbreak of horse flu

Horse flu

Equine influenza is the disease caused by strains of Influenza A that are enzootic in horse species. Equine influenza occurs globally, and is caused by two main strains of virus: equine-1 and equine-2...

. The 2009 event attracted a crowd estimated at around 7,000, requiring 20 extra police to be temporarily posted to the small town. The 2010 races were cancelled for only the third time in the events history, and the first time due to flooding; this did not prevent visitors partying, and betting on 'phantom' races.

Races

In the past the Birdsville races have included:

• a seven-pound
  Avoirdupois
  The avoirdupois system is a system of weights based on a pound of 16 ounces. It is the everyday system of weight used in the United States and is still widely used to varying degrees by many people in Canada, the United Kingdom, and some other former British colonies despite the official adoption...
  
   handicap or penalty
  Handicapping
  Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning. The word also applies to the various methods by which the advantage is calculated...
  
   for professional riders
• special races for horses bred within 250 miles of Birdsville. There were also separate races for horses fed with corn
  Maize
  Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
  
   and those fed on grass.
• prizemoney for the cup has varied from 500 pounds
  Australian pound
  The pound was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 13 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. It was subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence.- Earlier Australian currencies :...
  
   in the 1880s to 50 pounds in the 1940s, A$
  Australian dollar
  The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
  
  5,000 in 1982 and $25,000 in 2002.
• the cup distance has been 1 mile or 1,600 metres since the first race, in 1882. In 1949 and 1950 the ‘Hospital Handicap’ (1 mile) was run in lieu of the Cup. Meetings were held then to raise funds for the construction of the Birdsville Hospital. The annual race meeting is now held to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Birdsville Clinic.
• races were once started by the drop of a hat and later by strand barriers. They are now started with barrier stalls.
• the old course was three miles to the west of the town. There used to be steeplechase races
  Steeplechase (horse racing)
  The steeplechase is a form of horse racing and derives its name from early races in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple, jumping fences and ditches and generally traversing the many intervening obstacles in the countryside...
  
  on this course. The course was abandoned as it was prone to flooding.