Polished Copper opens the camel racing trail in 2026

Camel racing returned to Jundah in Outback Queensland, where Polished Copper won the opening event of the 2026 Desert Champions Way Outback Camel Trail.

Emily Parrott rode the champion camel to a second straight Jundah title after the pair also won there in 2025. Polished Copper led from the front on the red dirt and claimed the first trophy of the 2026 trail.

Last year’s trail ended with Polished Copper and Geoffrey sharing the Camel of the Trail title. As a result, the 2026 series has opened with a fresh rematch between two of Australia’s best-known racing camels.

Parrott comes from a camel racing family and is a second-generation racer. She travelled more than 4,000 kilometres from Oakfield Ranch near Newcastle with nine racing camels and her family for the month-long Outback campaign.

She described Polished Copper as a natural racer. “Polished Copper just loves to race,” Parrott said.

Jundah’s opening weekend carried extra weight because major flooding hit the region in 2025 and left much of it underwater. However, the town bounced back in 2026 and drew about 500 people across the weekend, around five times its usual population.

The Desert Champions Way now heads west and south through Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia and Winton. Along the route, the trail mixes camel racing with storytelling, live music, local hospitality and tourism events.

Birdsville to Winton dates

The next stop is the Birdsville Carnival on 8th and 9th July 2026. After that, the Bedourie Camel and Pig Races are set for 11th July 2026, followed by the Boulia Camel Races from 17th to 19th July 2026 and the Winton Camel Races on 25th July 2026.

Visitors also made long trips to reach Jundah for the opening round. Gold Coast couple Stephanie Zielke and Dean Keppie were among the travellers following the Desert Champions Way across Outback Queensland.

For Zielke, the road trip honoured her late father, who had urged her to see Outback Queensland for herself. Keppie came for a simpler reason: the open roads and classic Outback journey that links the racing towns.

The opening race in Jundah set the pace for a month of competition across Queensland’s interior. Meanwhile, Parrott and Polished Copper have already shown they will again be a team to beat in 2026.