David Brook has a stomach ache.
This weekend, his tiny 115-strong frontier town on the edges of the Simpson and Stony deserts will swell to over 3000 as the iconic Birdsville races are run for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
As race club president, he's feeling the pressure.
"I haven't been able to sleep some nights because I haven't known how we're going to do it," says the 74-year-old.
"I wake up with a stomach ache at three in the morning."
Passionate about horses and keeping the heart of the bush alive, Mr Brook shouldn't be worried. He's well practised.
He's been running the iconic Birdsville carnival for nearly five decades. His uncle was president before him.
Mr Brook's family has been in Birdsville since 1888 - just a few years after the first race meet was held in 1882. His mother married a Birdsville cup-winning jockey.
One of his sons is the vice president, a daughter the treasurer. It's a family affair. No small thing given the event regularly attracts up to 5000 attendees - 8000 at the 1982 centenary including then prime minister Bob Hawke.
Mr Brook knows the lead-up to the event can feel daunting but then the volunteers start arriving - down from the big smoke for a bit of hard work, a lot of fun and no money.
"They're getting a meal, somewhere to stay, a cool place to have a drink; they might get shouted a beer and they do a day's work for nothing," Mr Brook says.
"They turn up and tell me 'don't worry, we can do that' and by lunch time I haven't got any stomach pain at all."
The Birdsville carnival is more than just a horse race.
The desert meet where "the dust never settles" has been a mainstay of outback Australia's social calendar for 140 years.
Thousands make the annual pilgrimage to the small town at the "inner edge" of Australia - 1600km from Brisbane and 1200km from Adelaide.
If they can't find rooms in the town's limited accommodation options, they camp or sleep in swags under the stars.
All so they can be part of the iconic carnival and experience the beating heart of Australia's outback.
The outback is "in our psyche", Mr Brook says.
COVID-19 isn't the only reason the races have had to be cancelled - they lost a few years to world wars, drought, flood, Spanish flu and equine flu.
But this year they will be making up for it with two meets - the usual carnival in September and an autumn meet happening on Sunday and Monday.
The town is already heaving with visitors - volunteers and punters, bookies and jockeys, and those just hoping to soak up the atmosphere - try Birdsville's famous curried camel pie.
"You've got to get to the race track and see the horses and the dust," Mr Brook says.
"You've got to get to the Birdsville pub, you've got to have a beer in your hand standing out on the verandah on the edge of the street while the sun's setting.
"The weather's good, the beer will be cold and everything will be great."
