Gather your gumption, your gusto, and your good old wheelbarrows – the legendary Burra Barrow Push is back.
Whether you’re a barrow-pushing pro or just a regular Jane or Joe with an appetite for outlandish challenges, the Terowie to Burra Barrow Push is your chance to shine. Pack your sense of humour, don your quirkiest costumes, and brace yourselves for a day of fabulous fun, for a fantastic cause…with prizemoney donated to the winner’s chosen charity.
Back in 1983, an epic Centenary Barrow Push, commemorating the founding of Broken Hill, attracted 24 teams from as far as Port Hedland and Port Kembla. The challenge – a gruelling 355-kilometre trek in searing heat from Burra to Broken Hill, pushing barrows laden with mining gear, paying tribute to the hundreds of miners who walked the track 100 years before them.
Thanks to the mighty efforts of The Regional Council of Goyder with support from AGL, the wheelbarrows are dusted off, lubed up, and raring to replicating the first leg of the original race.
The hunt is on for the bravest of souls – solos, duos, and even barrow squads of up to 6 daredevils – to take up the 64km adventure from Terowie Main Street to Burra’s Market Square and be part of history in the remaking. At the finish line, challengers will arrive to the triumphant sound of live music and markets, with an official presentation in the Market Square Rotunda, crowning the next wheelbarrow-pushing superstars.
In the 1983 marathon event each barrow contained a 30 kilogram “regulation load”, including essentials like water, flour, tea, sugar and beer, blankets, a pick, shovel, axe and bar – similar to that of the Cornish miners who were forced load up their wheelbarrows and move on to Broken Hill after the closure of the Burra’s “Monster Mine” in the 1870s.
The brutal Barrow Push was held another four times after the ’83 event, the last wheelbarrow crossed the Broken Hill finish line in 1996. Event organiser, Glen Christie, holds hope that after this October, plans can get underway for another full Burra to Broken Hill challenge.
So give your mates a push in the right direction, and register now to recreate a history-making event of endurance and fun.
To register and for more details click here
