JULIA Creek celebrated the 22nd annual Dirt n Dust Festival this weekend, as an estimated 3500 people travelled from all over Australia to take part in the iconic outback event.
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People travelled from far and wide to race in Australia’s toughest sprint triathlon, let their hair down at one of the North West’s richest horse races, get caught up in the action of a PBR-sanctioned bull ride, vie for the title of Australia’s Best Butt, rub shoulders with celebrity Life Guard Andrew ‘Reidy’ Reid from Bondi Rescue and dance the night away to an impressive line-up of live music.
Dirt n Dust Committee President Stephen Malone said feedback from Festival-goers was overwhelmingly positive.
“We had a lot of very happy faces across all events this weekend and the atmosphere was up there with the best we’ve ever had,” Mr Malone said.
“The Saturday night bull ride and concert was especially good and attendance there blew us away – I don’t think there was a spare patch of grass on the hill during the bull ride.”
More than 2500 people attended Saturday night’s Professional Bull Ride and concert, with others coming along just for the Cannington Mine Julia Creek Dirt n Dust Triathlon, the Daikin Marwill Junior Dirt n Dust Triathlon and the Artesian Express race day.
“Once again, we were very impressed with the good behaviour of all patrons and must applaud them for coming along to have a good time, party safely and allow others to do the same,” Mr Malone said.
The weekend’s festivities represent a big economic boost to local businesses across Julia Creek and the North West.
“More than $800,000 would have been injected into McKinlay Shire this weekend with our visitors spending big on accommodation, food and drink and fuel for their trips home,” Mr Malone said.
“As always a big thank you goes out to all of our sponsors, particularly our major supporters Tourism and Events Queensland, South 32 and McKinlay Shire Council. Also to our high profile guests – Andrew ‘Reidy’ Reid from TV show Bondi Rescue, IRONMAN Champ Liz Blatchford, World-class duathlete Dean Degan, the boys from Brisbane Heat, and musician Missy Lancaster.
“It’s important to also note the tremendous effort of the Dirt n Dust Committee and more than 120 volunteers who helped across the weekend and in the lea-up – a lot of them were first timers at this event and we threw them in the deep end with such a full schedule. They all took it in their stride and pulled off each part of the Festival very smoothly.”
