OQM tournament & # 039; s fourth Boulia stop in the channel country

Shelley Norton, Boulia Golf Club treasurer and lives in the neighborhood for a long time

It has rained in Boulia, in Outback Queensland, which is not unusual.

The good news is that the flooded water declined, as usual in the & # 39; Channel Land & # 39 ;, and the famous camel races are not far away. Not to mention Boulia & # 39; s first glimpse of a major golf tournament, where the Outback Masters are played at the local golf club on July 22-23.

Boulia (pronounced Bull-ya, population only 300 and on the road between Mt Isa and Birdsville, is authentic inland with its summer temperatures above 50 degrees and it is a small 18-hole golf course with dirt fairways and black sand greens. his 50th birthday in 2018.

It is one of the big spin-offs from the first Outback Masters that cities like Boulia deserve well-deserved attention. With the camel races planned for the three days before the golf, tourists and golfers will be able to experience the taste of the interior for a period of five days.

"It's going to be a great time," says Shelley Norton, treasurer of Boulia Golf Club (who is also secretary of the camel races). "We have a Channel Country Open every year and we have had sand-green championships. But this is quite new for the whole of Outback Queensland."

Boulia Golf Club has only about 10 playing members, according to Mrs. Norton, although still some social members. Players who get out in the Outback Masters, starting in Roma on June 17 and making their way through the outback, will find that when they enter the & # 39; green & # 39; reach, a rake is used to pave the path of their putts. "Everyone putts from the same line, & # 39; & # 39; she said." You bring your ball around in that beam so you don't have to rake every line. It is really golf in Outback style. & # 39; & # 39;

Boulia's town has a pub, the Australian and a service station (rare outside), with a main street that is unusually wide because it was built to run the Cobb and Co-coaches more than a century ago. The main industries are beef and tourism, with the huge Marion Downs station on 1.2 million hectares nearby.

But it is the famous Min Min Lights that attract most tourists to the city, a mysterious series of lights that appear without warning and that attract many astronomers and interested spectators every year.

The Min Min Encounter Tourism Center in the main street examines all the different theories about the origin of the lights. Norton has never seen the lights, but as a former tourism official in the city, she knows the value of the attraction. "Nobody ever explained them," she said. "There are so many theories, from the scientific to the supernatural, so many people who have sought to study it. Light can travel so far in the large open spaces, but it is still a mystery at this stage. It is not like the northern lights that appear at certain times. It is very random. "

The locals have a saying about the lights: & You can't search for the Min Min Lights. They are looking for you & # 39 ;.

Cyclone Trevor recently caused untold destruction in Queensland, but before Boulia, the waters crossed the bridge at the start of the city, crept up to the gas station, but never got much further. The presence of the channels that bring water to the nearby pastoral properties is a godsend.

So everything is ready for the big tourist ride, starting with the camel races on 19 and 21 July. Tourists who come for that event can continue to play golf, with plenty of accommodation in the pub, the Desert Sands Motel and in the caravan park, as well as on the farm.

Flights to Boulia go from Mt Isa or it is approximately a four hour drive. It is an eight-hour drive from the south.

For information about the Outback Masters, visit: www.outbackqldmasters.com