Ok ive got hubby on the talk of going to birdsville cos he knows ive always wanted to go , as some of you know we live at glasshouse mountains so its a twenty hour drive fromhere has any body a good idea of what time of year to go is best ?? and whats the road like now ? its one place i have not been hoping to take about four days off
as its not along way 20 hours ?>

any info would be greatly appreciated .

It depends on why you want to go to Birdsville. You either have to go in May to July..when the weather is cooler or........ if you want to see Birdsville at it's BEST......you should go in August ....for the Birdsville Races. If you go in August and want to stay in the caravan park ......BOOK ahead!! Book it NOW!! They get up to five thousand people there great place.......one big party but you can run the risk of getting a bit of ****ty weather as in high winds and dust storms. It is the outback and that is all part of the scene!! If you want any more info.......just yell!!

thanks for that ive been a lot of places and am a great fan of old hotels ive been to the sexchange hotel in coen, the hotel where peter falconio was murdered near cant think of the name heaps of pubs and i love them and like taking pics of them, and birdsville just facinates me , yep ive heard all about the races unfortunately for the first time i go there i dont wish to experience it like that i just want the feeling of nothing. if you know what i mean ? quiet nothing and just a pub sitting there,ive been to heartbreak hotel too that had a pool though so we cooled off while we waited for food and then headed back on the track. so the main reason is that we dont have a lot of time to take off right now and its not far away and some place on the map ive always wanted to go

Birdsville is a hoot during the races (worked there for three of them).  Even in the cooler months before the races you will find nomads in the park and down by the river.  Big Red Sandhill always has a few people climbing up or down.   In any part of that country it is not that hard to find solitude.  Just be sure to tell police on the way where you will be staying or driving to etc.   The summer months are a killer with the heat but even in winter you can die of thirst if you break down and wander off from the vehicle.   The pub at Birdsville is a great place to meet local characters. 

Another funny pub is the Kalkadoon Hotel at Kajabbi, about 100ks North West of Cloncurry.  Also the Quamby Pub on the road to Normanton. 

Ian

Check the Innaminka thread (about 5 topics below this one) if you haven't already done so, it may have some info that's perhaps relevant to your plans. There was also camping available at Windorah on the banks of the Cooper when I was there several years ago. Other folks here may be able to update this info.

whole lotta nothin out there, we intend to go back again around august September, we like a whole lotta nuthin!

we often meet an elderly couple from Canberra who volunteer on a couple of homesteads up there, they paint the inside of houses, be "grandparents" hang out washing basically they just "be there" for lonely couples on stations, they drive or used to drive a Toyota Camry or prius, they do the trip from Canberra twice a year

race week is crazy, we did it twice and it's beer bottles and drunks for miles, airplanes/helicopters and wall to wall puddle jumpers

most other times it's a ghost town

-- Edited by dave06 on Monday 1st of February 2010 10:44:27 AM

Interested in the Birdsville comments as I am thinking about it for later this year on my way south from Qld. Think I'll leave it till after the races, although that could be fun, but not thrilled about crowds. Could be another GN meet up.

Birdsville is an absolute hoot during the week leading up to the races. Innamincka has it's picnic race weekend the week before and all the Cooper Creek campers head north to Birdsville, either via Cordillo or Walker's Crossing up to the Birdsville Track. Even if you have to camp out in the paddock around town, it's just a great event, where everyone is there for the same reason - the party and races and the party. It's grog is cans these days, the street is closed, and there's so much fun to have even if you never get to the races. Ya gotta do it, just once or again and again. It's worth the effort.

I have a friend who lives in Birdsville and works in the pub. She is back here in the Hunter at the moment. She said it is really hot there at the moment and a fair bit of water lying around making it not so pleasant to drive.

The town is a ghost town right now. She plans to go back early March for the beginning of the tourist season. May through to July-August is the general time frame I hear most speak of, for comfort from the heat and the road condition. 

stinking hot up there and water coming down, the grog may be sold in cans but the drop in's bring slabs of bottles, just hang around the day after the week of shindigs, the road is completely covered in bottles and cans and old dead slab boxes it extends roughly half a mile each side of the pub, it would have to be aussies biggest piss up the nights are the strangest, take a wander past the pub and it's bodies and drunks everywhere, looks like a bomb went off everyone should do it just once!

well how wonderful thanks for the news , yep we will leave it till round may june i think ,will look up what the weather is like then and roads, i realy do want to do the races one time, but not this year i want to experience it solitude if ya know what i mean i love crowds but its not my way of picturing the hotel for the first time. will make sure we let people know where we are headed etc, its only twenty hours drive from sunshine coast thats not along way ? taking four days off leave a thur head home sunday . we are used to driving for quite a few hours its best todrive there as longas we canand then take our time on way home to see things not that there is a whole lot to see but just the glory of the outback its been a long time since i have been to the outback cant wait cheers to you all

We were there mid June last year. The roads were excellent. I had allowed 3 days to get from Quilpie to Birdsville with an extra day just in case. We took just 5 1/2 hours (including several not short stops) to cover the gravel section (280 km.) We had expected to do long stretches at 25 km/H (ordinary van) but only travelled 2 - 3km at that speed Most of the way we were travelling at 90 km/H There were 8 grader crews in the Diamantina Shire. They are there to keep the roads in good condition for the tourist season. I would say the best time to go would be from mid June until just before the races. I don't know what damage the large crowd going to the races does to the roads in the area. We departed Birdsville via Mt Isa. Most of the road up to there was excellent. The let down is just when you enter the Boulia shire, but there is only about 30 km of poor gravel and bitumen.