Brian Cassey: The Great Wheelbarrow Race
The "Great Wheelbarrow Race" is now an annual event held in far north Queensland to comemorate the pioneer miners of the last century who took off into the bush with a wheel barrow loaded with all their possessions in the search for riches in Australia's "Gold Rush".
The race, comprising individuals and teams pushing identical wheelbarrows, starts in the Atherton Tablelands town of Mareeba and continues west 149kms through the bush to the former mining town of Chillagoe in temperatures at times reaching 33C.
Race stalwart 74 year old Jon Booth (left) - the "Chillagoe Fossil" - has won the race outright three times but this year had to settle for second place when he was beaten by a young girl. He trains for the event by dragging a tyre roped around his waist.
Pics © Brian Cassey 2010 (for Associated Press)
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