Winton turns on the fun
IT’S normally known for its dinosaurs, but over the past week the Outback town of Winton has become the centre of attention with Australia’s quirkiest festival.
Winton was inundated with festival-goers from little swaggies to the young at heart ahead of its 26th celebration of the hilarious Outback Festival.
Two years in the making, the festival best known for its quirky Quilton Australian Dunny Derby.
“We’ve never seen this many people in our town for the festival before,” Winton Shire Mayor Gavin Baskett said.
“This is really such a thrill, where we just open our town to visitors and share in the hilarious fun of our Outback culture.”
The festival included the week-long Outback Strength challenges, in which competitors put not only their physical but also mental strength to the test with a series of gruelling events with a distinctly Outback twist.
For the smaller Outback champions, there were the Little Swaggies events and Outback Iron Juniors challenge, alongside the Whip Cracking Challenge, Wool Bale Rolling, Egg Throwing and Wobble
Board Painting activities. There were also less strenuous sports in the True Blue Aussie Sports Pub Crawl with eight sports at every “watering hole” in Winton, including Pool, Cow Pat Discus and the Troo Bloo Roo Poo.
For the foodies, the Sunset
Extravaganza Charity Dinner celebrating 100 years of Qantas under the stars on the Winton Airport tarmac was a hit.
The mouth-watering feast was hosted by Olympian swimmer Julie Mcdonald and raised funds for the Cancer Council Queensland with a hotly contested live auction. Live entertainment also featured with an line-up of acts ready to perform in a series of concerts, which started with the Outback Festival Spectacular Opening Concert.
Bush Poets had festivalgoers in laughing fits on
Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings at Winton’s Shire Hall and featured Marco Gliori, Errol Gray and Neil Mcarthur.
Never to be forgotten is the star of the festival, the quirkiest event of them all – The Quilton Australian Outback Dunny
Derby, which was held on Friday.
Country music star James Blundell headlined the Friday Night Concert Series and was joined by Will Day, Left of Centre Band, Fat Cigar Fiesta Band and World Record whip cracker, Nathan Griggs.