Birdsville Races is an event unlike any other, an iconic Australian race day and weeklong event taking place in the Simpson Desert in the far South West of Queensland. We’ve spent the last few months planning to attend Birdsville Races 2021, but unfortunately, COVID-19 had other plans.

“The Birdsville Races, known as the Melbourne Cup of the outback, have been held since 1882 and have only been cancelled twice in the events history. Due to equine flu in 2007, and then COVID in 2020.” -Birdsville Races Media Release

Birdsville Races dates back to 1882, and Frontier Services has been part of the event since it’s inception. Our founder, Rev. John Flynn, opened the Australian Inland Mission Hospital which operated in Birdsville for 53 years. AIM, Frontier Services, and Rev. Flynn are all featured heavily in the museum in Birdsville that still operates to this day.

Attending Birdsville Races 2021 is something we were really looking forward to. In addition to being a heap of great fun, attending Birdsville Races allows Frontier Services to support our roots, network with Australians from around the country, and raise much needed funds to support Aussie farmers and regional Australians.

Like every year, we spent months prepping and planning to attend the iconic event. We held weekly meetings with our incredible Bush Chaplains, Cain Hartigan and David Ellis, who help and support our presence at the races.

Everything was booked and ready to go when we got the news that the COVID-19 concern was too great for the event to go ahead. We, like many others, were gutted, but glad that our health and safety always remains a great priority and we will be just as excited to attend the event next year in April 2022.

Gary Brook, Vice President of the Birdsville Race Club, said “It’s not what we wanted to do but it is the responsible decision. To run the 2021 TAB Birdsville Cup in 2022 is unprecedented but if its good enough for the Olympics, it’s good enough for us.”

We look forward to attending Birdsville Races 2021 in April 2022. The iconic event has gotten even more exciting, with a historic two race meeting in 2022.

We’d like to say a special thank you to the support of Fresh Promotions who so generously donated some merchandise in support of our fundraising efforts at the event. Their pro bono donation allows us to increase revenue and in turn support more regional and remote Australians.

We really can’t wait to dig up our roots again next year in Birdsville and support the amazing event.

Sadly, we won’t be returning to our roots at Birdsville Races 2021, so we wanted to celebrate some past year’s memories and #throwback to the good old days.

We hope you enjoy some of these images taken by our team back in 2019.

Stay safe and see you in 2022!