Birdsville is a small town (pop. 100) in the Diamantina Shire of Queensland, located on the edge of the Simpson Desert. Proclaimed a town in 1887, the settlement was established at the border of South Australia and Queensland to collect tolls from cattle stock being moved interstate via the Birdsville Track; with federation in 1901, the tolls were abolished and the town fell into decline.
Today the town is a popular tourist destination and is most famous for the legendary Birdsville Races, which are held each September in aid of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. The tiny town population is swelled to many thousands for the two day event with hundreds of aircraft often filling the town's airstrip.