THE indefinite closure of the iconic Birdsville Track has prompted a stinging attack on the South Australian Government.
On his first visit to the Birdsville Races since becoming the Member for Maranoa more than 10 years ago, David Littleproud ripped into the South Aussies last weekend. He especially took Premier Peter Malinauskas to task over the SA Government’s inaction in relation to the Birdsville Track.
Mr Littleproud reckons the Diamantina Shire Council, an accredited builder of roads and with workers based just minutes from the northern end of the Birdsville Track, linking Outback Queensland with remote parts of the Festival State, should have been invited to fix the problem.
“Slip ’em across the border. We could have this road open tomorrow. The reality is we got a South Australian Government that doesn’t give a rat’s and unfortunately what that means is that we’re paying the bill for it,” says the former Nationals Leader who’s also the Shadow Tourism Minister.
Mr Littleproud, who celebrated his 50th birthday the day before the Saturday meeting at Birdsville, has even suggested that the Malinauskas Government be cut out of roads funding from Canberra, for ignoring pleas to fix the Birdsville Track.
“I’ve written to the Federal Minister, to say you need to intervene. Federal money is involved in this. You give money on a circumstance that you actually have to make sure that this works. If you haven’t done it, well don’t give the money to South Australia,” he says.
The closure of the Birdsville Track has been blamed for lower-than-expected crowd numbers for last week’s Birdsville Races.
POSTED: The Birdsville Track….closed indefinitely, much to the dismay of Member for Maranoa and Shadow Tourism Minister David Littleproud.
POSTED: Wednesday, September 9, 2026