PLACE REPRESENTED: Birdsville (specifically Birdsville Hospital), Queensland, Australia

ITEM: Toothpick Holder

NOTES: Birdsville in remote outback Queensland. Famous for the yearly Birdsville races horserace meet where, no doubt, some participants and some celebrating spectators end up at the Birdsville hospital .. hopefully not too many. The population is swells from about 100 to around 7,000 people for the two-day event.

Birdsville lies at the end of Australia’s (once) most hazardous stock route. To this day the Birdsville Track is still an unsealed road but maintained so that you can travel in either a 4WD or SUV with a caravan or camper trailer, or regular car if it doesn’t rain. The road conditions can vary and you may find yourself travelling over a diverse range of surfaces from sand dunes to gibber plains (a tight layer of smooth, weathered rock fragments called “gibbers” (derived from an Aboriginal word for stone)).

The trinket is a toothpick holder made of local wood and nuts to shape a curious grub.

YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s

MADE FROM: wood

MADE IN: Australia I suspect

MANUFACTURER: unknown

DIMENSIONS: 8.5cm long