Birdsville

Birdsville is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia.[2][3] In the 2016 census the locality of Birdsville had a population of 140 people.[1] It is a popular tourist destination with many people using it as a starting point across the Simpson Desert.

Betoota is a ghost town within the locality (25°41′40″S 140°44′39″E  /  25.6944°S 140.7441°E  / -25.6944; 140.7441  (Betoota ) ).[4]

Birdsville is 1,590 kilometres (990 mi) west of the state capital, Brisbane, and 720 kilometres (450 mi) south of the city of Mount Isa. Birdsville is on the edge of the Simpson Desert, approximately 174 km east of Poeppel Corner and the climate is very arid.[citation needed ]

Birdsville is located about 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) north-east of the Diamantina River in the Channel Country in the Lake Eyre drainage basin.[5]

The Birdsville Track extends 514 kilometres (319 mi) from Marree in South Australia before ending at Birdsville; the road continues north as the Eyre Developmental Road to Bedourie. The Birdsville Developmental Road travels east from the town towards Windorah.[6] A popular route across the Simpson Desert goes from Birdsville to Mt Dare via the French Line. The Line is an unsealed track built in the early 1960s by French Petroleum for oil exploration purposes.

Almost all the buildings in the town are of local sandstone, there being no local timber available. Distance and the lack of good access roads or a railway create prohibitively high transportation costs, so imported building materials are kept to a minimum.[7]

Birdsville is located on land traditionally owned by the Wongkanguru people, in the Channel Country of Central West Queensland, Australia.[citation needed ]

Long before Birdsville was established by British colonists, the region in which it is situated was occupied by indigenous Australians, speakers of the Wangkangurru language (also known as Arabana/Wangkangurru, Wangganguru, Wanggangurru or Wongkangurru), whose extent ranged from Birdsville south towards Innamincka and Lake Eyre, including the modern local government areas of the Shire of Diamantina as well as the Outback Communities Authority of South Australia.[8]

Although British explorers had passed through the Diamantina district in the 1840s and early 1860s, pastoralists did not occupy this semi-arid region until the mid-1870s. Brothers Hector and Norman Wilson formed "The Bluff" property around the present site of Birdsville in 1875 as an outpost of their massive Coongy station across the border in South Australia.[9][10] The Bluff property was also known as Salmonville.[11] Nearby pastoral stations of Annandale, Pandie Pandie, Glengyle and Roseberth were taken up in 1876; and Carcoory in 1877.[7]

Conflict in the region during this time included several large massacres of the resident Aboriginal people being perpetrated.[12] For instance in 1879, Sub-Inspectors Henry Kaye and Henry Gough of the Native Police, together with troopers and stockmen from The Bluff and other properties, conducted a sweeping patrol for the perpetrators of the murder of a stockman. They came across two camps of Aboriginal people and dispersed them. [13] A pastoralist on the nearby Warburton Creek reported to the Police Commissioner in Adelaide that 67 people were killed in these raids and that survivors from the violence had fled to his property.[14]

There are a number of different theories as to the origin of the name Birdsville. One is that the name was suggested by Robert Frew, owner of Pandie Pandie Station, who also had a store and shop at the Diamantina Crossing, in reference to the prolific bird life in the district.[2] The other is that a store was established by Percy Bird and George Field and they called it Birdfield. However, in 1882, G. and R. Wills, of Adelaide, misaddressed a consignment of goods as going to Birdsville and that name stuck.[15] Another is that a man named Burt established a store and called it Burtsville which corrupted to Birdsville.[16] Whatever its origin, by 1882, the name Birdsville was in common use.[17] The name was adopted in the 1885 survey and was formalised at the proclamation of town in 1887.[7]

In 1881, Hector and Norman Wilson, sold The Bluff (Salmonville) property for £19,000.[18][19] Outside of their pastoral business, the brothers resided in Melbourne where they were the driving force behind the establishment of the Melbourne Racing Club, the Coongy Cup and the Caulfield Cup.[20][21]

In the early 1880s the towns of Birdsville and Bedourie were established to service the newly taken up pastoral holdings of the Diamantina. Reputedly, a merchant named Matthew Flynn, who carried stores for the stations, built a rough depot in the late 1870s at the site of the present town of Birdsville, then known as the Diamantina Crossing,[22] on the stock route from Boulia south to Adelaide. By mid-1885, when the township of Birdsville was officially surveyed, a number of buildings had been erected at the Diamantina Crossing, including a police lock-up (1883), Groth's Royal Hotel (c. 1883 ), William Blair's Birdsville Hotel (c. 1883 ), Curtain's Tattersalls Hotel, and at least 3 stores and 1 shop.

When it was proclaimed, the town had three hotels, two stores, a customs house for interstate trade, a police station and a large collection of commercial buildings.[23]

Diamantina Shire was established in 1883, and its headquarters were at Birdsville until moved to Bedourie in 1953.[7] Birdsville Post Office opened on 1 January 1883.[24]

Birdsville, over 1,500 km west of Brisbane and 10 km north of the Queensland-South Australian border, developed as an administrative centre for police and border customs. Birdsville is located at the border of South Australia and Queensland to collect tolls from the droves of cattle being moved interstate. Nearly all the trade of the town was with Adelaide, and it became an important marshalling point for cattle being driven south to markets in South Australia. By 1889 the population of Birdsville was 110, and the town had 2 general stores, 3 hotels, a police station, school, 2 blacksmith shops, 2 bakers, a cordial manufacturer, bootmaker, saddler, auctioneer & commission agent, and a number of residences. The population peaked in 1895 at 220.[7]

Birdsville State School opened on 14 August 1899. The school closed in 1948 and has subsequently reopened.[25]

Circa 1900 Birdsville had a population of over 300. It had three hotels, a cordial factory, blacksmith store, market gardens, police and customs facilities but after Federation in 1901, the tolls were abolished and the town fell into decline to about 50 people throughout the 1950s. Livestock trade kept the region alive and since then tourism has joined cattle as the major industry in the area.[26]

Tom Kruse operated the Birdsville Track mail run from 1936 to 1957, driving his Leyland Badger truck.[27] He delivered mail and other supplies including general stores, fuel and medicine to remote stations from Marree in north-west South Australia to Birdsville, some 325 miles (523 kilometres) away.[28] Each trip would take two weeks and Kruse regularly had to manage break-downs, flooding creeks and rivers, and getting bogged in desert dunes.[28]

In 2007 there was just one hotel serving canned or bottled beer, a library, a visitor information centre, a museum and a hospital.[23]

In the 2016 census the locality of Birdsville had a population of 140 people.[1]

Birdsville has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

At the 2016 census, Birdsville had a population of 140. 86.1% of people were born in Australia and 94.2% of people only spoke English at home.[35]

Birdsville State School is a government primary (Early Childhood-6) school for boys and girls at Adelaide Street (25°53′54″S 139°21′10″E  /  25.8984°S 139.3527°E  / -25.8984; 139.3527  (Birdsville State School ) ).[36][37] In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 7 students with 2 teachers and 1 non-teaching staff.[38]

There is no secondary school in Birdsville, nor nearby. Distance education and boarding school are options.[5]

Birdsville has an 80 kW geothermal power station, the only one of its type in Australia.[39] Water is extracted from bore drilled in 1961 on the Great Artesian Basin at 97 to 99 °C (207 to 210 °F) and is used to heat the operating fluid isopentane in a Rankine Cycle engine. The geothermal plant produces around one third of the town's electricity. The water (once cooled) is also the source of the town's drinking water.[40][41] A plan by Ergon Energy to expand the 80 kW power plant to completely meet Birdsville's electricity requirements was shelved, in favour of increasing the use of solar power and battery storage.[42]

Birdsville has a police station manned by one officer, and a hospital staffed by one nurse.

Birdsville Library is at 29 Burt Street and is operated by the Diamantina Shire Council.[43]

The town is situated near a billabong. A pontoon was built at Burt Street on the north bank of the billabong (25°54′10″S 139°21′12″E  /  25.9029°S 139.3532°E  / -25.9029; 139.3532  (Birdsville, Birdsville Billabong pontoon ) ) to facilitate swimming and non-powered boating activities. It is managed by the Diamantina Shire Council.[44][45] In 2012, the billabong became home to a stray freshwater crocodile, which was subsequently removed and relocated by park ranger Don Rowlands.[46]

The annual Birdsville Races are held in September in aid of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. The town's tiny population is augmented by between 7000 and 9000 people for the two-day event, and hundreds of aircraft fill the town's 1,700-metre (1,859 yd) airstrip.[47] In 2010 the races were cancelled for the first time in the event's history due to rain.

Other events, such as "The Big Red Run" and the "Big Red Bash", are held at Birdsville throughout the winter tourist season.[citation needed ] The Simpson Desert Bike Challenge also traditionally finishes in Birdsville in October every year. [48]

Birdsville has a hot desert climate (BWh in the Köppen climate classification) with an average of only 22 days of rain a year. Summers are extremely hot and dry, with winters being mild to warm. The median annual rainfall at Birdsville is 133 mm (5.2 in)[49] The actual amount of rain which falls is highly variable, for example, in 1914 just 14 mm (0.55 in) was recorded while 659 mm (25.9 in) fell in 1917. Dust storms are most likely during periods of strong wind which typically occur in spring.[49] Birdsville has recorded the highest confirmed temperature in the state of Queensland, with 49.5 °C (121.1 °F) having been recorded on 24 December 1972.[50]

Birdsville disease is an illness observed in horses, caused by eating the native plant Birdsville indigo (Indigofera linnaei) which contains natural toxins including the neurotoxin 3 nitropropionic acid (3-NPA). The affected horses exhibit weakness and lack of coordination; it can be fatal. It does not appear to affect cattle.[53] Although it is not unique to Birdsville, the condition was first observed in the Birdsville district in May 1886.[54] While there were many theories about the cause of the disease including plants, worms and sunstroke, it was not until 1950 that researchers identified the precise cause.[55] Mildly affected horses can recover with a regimen of drenching with gelatine and feeding a diet high in arginine but euthanasia is recommended for severely affected horses. As there is no cure, preventing horses from grazing on indigo is recommended.[53]