It's just as well the Birdsville Races aren't in March, with the venue waterlogged after recent rain.
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The track seems more suitable for water polo than horse polo and Birdsville Races secretary Jenna Brook got her wellies, her bathers, her cowboy hat and her hobby horse out to check out the venue after two big days of rain.
Birdsville got 67.2mm on Wednesday and then 58.0mm on Thursday as ex Tropical Cyclone Esther swung back towards Queensland.
The combined 125.2mm was more than the outback got in the whole of 2019 and the highest one day fall since the 2016 Birdsville Races were washed out.
There's little likelihood of that happening this September but Ms Brook said the track and indeed the whole region would be looking great and the desert will be spectacular after the rain.
"The rain has dried up but there is still a lot of water about," Ms Brook said.
"We're very lucky to have it."
Ms Brook said all roads in and out of Birdsville were still closed on Monday.
"It all depends on the river (Diamantina) if that stays up a bit longer," she said.
The 2020 Birdsville Races are on September 4 and 5 and tickets go on sale April 2 at www.birdsvilleraces.com
As well as being races secretary, Jenna is also organising Birdsville's first ultra marathon in June with many people coming down from Mount Isa for the event.
"It's a footrace with a difference through the Simpson Desert," she said.
"There's four different events, a 20km, a 42km, an 80km and a 160km distance."
Jenna also raised $70,000 for bowel cancer in her epic Running for Bums statement in 2018, when she ran the equivalent of a marathon every day for 100 days, from the bottom of Tasmania to the tip of Cape York.
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
