Sixty-nine year-old Mandurah retiree Robert Repacholi arrived to the Simpson Desert last weekend after months of caravaning across Australia to volunteer at the Birdsville Races.
This is the first time Mr Repacholi put his hand up to volunteer at the race, becoming on of Birdville’s oldest volunteers.
“It’s one of the those things I always wanted to do,” he said.
Mr Repacholi started off as a farmer in the Wheatbelt town of Kondinin, before becoming an insurance broker and finishing his career as a couch driver, when he got the bug of travelling around Australia.
He has now retired and is travelling around the country again in his caravan with his wife Michele.
“It’s a good lifestyle,” he said.
The Birdsville Races are Australia’s most remote horse race, being set in the Simpson Desert.
The event attracts more than 7,000 racegoers of all ages and backgrounds every year and has a prize pool of $200,000.
Birdsville Race Club vice-president Gary Brook said it’s a spectacular experience.
“There is no other race meet like the Birdsville Cup anywhere in the world,” he said.
“It’s really a bucket list experience.”
The event also helps to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Mr Repacholi will be driving the VIPs in and our of town as well as helping setting up the cocktail parties and selling merchandising.
Attendees to the races will be able to enjoy talent shows, sausage sizzles, auctions, parties, and live entertainment before, after and during the event.
This year’s edition will run between September 2 and 3.
Robert and Michele Repacholi will be arriving back to Western Australia in September, after six months of travelling.
Marta Pascual Juanola
Photojournalist from Barcelona, currently based in WA. Five languages speaker: English - Català - Español - Norsk - العربية.
Photojournalist from Barcelona, currently based in WA. Five languages speaker: English - Català - Español - Norsk - العربية.
