Outback floods paint Big Red Bash green, as John Williamson plays intimate desert gigs
The artists have changed but one thing that’s stayed the same has been the rust-red colour of the sand in all directions – until this year, after recent flooding spurred a dramatic change in scenery.
Since its humble beginnings as an intimate concert held atop a sand dune in 2013, the Big Red Bash has ballooned to become a large-scale, multi-day music festival and tourist attraction for up to 9000 people.
With it held each winter in western Queensland at the edge of the Simpson Desert, the performing artists changed but one thing stayed the same: the rust-red colour of the sand visible in all directions – until this year, after recent flooding spurred a dramatic change in scenery.
“We’re thinking of renaming the Big Red Bash the ‘Big Green Bash’,” festival promoter Greg Donovan told The Australian with a smile. “The big camping area down at the bottom of the dune is just lush, green grass.”
When Donovan announced in September that the festival would be taking a “breather”, the public outcry – including from outback tourism operators – was such that in December, organisers announced a smaller, stopgap event with only one headline artist.
In a neat call-back to its 2013 origins, the promoter enlisted country singer-songwriter John Williamson, who he had booked 12 years ago, for a pair of exclusive shows back atop the sandy hill.
“If you couldn’t [sell] 1000 tickets to something like John playing on the Big Red dune, there’d be something wrong; it’d be un-Australian if that didn’t occur,” said Donovan. “We decided one’s not enough; we put two on sale, straight up front, and pretty much filled two nights.”
Williamson, 79, retains fond memories of that 2013 gig. “The most different place I’ve ever performed? It’d have to be Big Red,” he said at the Birdsville Hotel on Monday while sharing a beer with Donovan. “I’ve done a lot of different shows, but it’s special, because I always believed my music is about this kind of country,” said the ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted artist.
“There hasn’t been a huge amount of songs written about the outback, so I thought the marriage was quite good.”
When Williamson arrived by plane in the desert outpost on Monday afternoon with his band, what did he see from above?
“A green tinge everywhere, and puddles of water,” he said. “A lot of photos I took from the plane look like Aboriginal paintings; in fact, I think I’ll paint a couple of them.”
The usually sleepy town of Birdsville, population 100, was a hive of activity this week ahead of Williamson’s sunset concerts on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“All the old farts my age are on the road in caravans these days, looking for somewhere to go,” he said with a smile, quietly proud at being the drawcard for about 2000 fans – of all ages – to venture into far western Queensland, some for the first time.
The festival site at the base of Big Red is on Adria Downs, a large cattle property owned by David and Nell Brook, who married in 1974 and have been strong supporters of the tourism influx the Bash has brought.
“We get a lot of people to visit the area and get an appreciation of what’s out here,” David Brook said. “I’m always keen to have them here; to see our story, see what’s good about it, see how we try to do things right – not only in Birdsville but in the whole area.”
The writer travelled to Birdsville as a guest of Outback Music Festival Group.
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