Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Eulo QLD

Eulo

Postcode: 4491

Eulo is an opal-mining town in south-western Queensland (Australia), in Paroo Shire, 64 km west of Charleville and 887 km west of Brisbane. The town has a population of under 100. Eulo has one Pub and a small General Store as well as Outback Petrol.

Eulo is basically little more than a one-pub, one-general store town and yet it has a charm which makes it something more than just another outback Queensland town.

As you enter Eulo, on the right, before the Eulo Queen pub, is the famous ‘Paroo Track’ which is where the world lizard racing championships are held each August. At the left-hand side of the track is a piece of granite with a plaque which reads: ‘Cunnamulla-Eulo Festival of Opals. ‘Destructo’, champion racing cockroach accidentally killed at this track (24.8.1980) after winning the challange (sic) stakes against ‘Wooden Head’ champion racing lizard 1980. Unveiled 23.8.81′. Somehow the spelling mistake, the absurdity of a cockroach racing a lizard, the circumstances under which the cockroach was trodden underfoot (by a drunken and enthusiastic punter, perhaps?), all lend an immediate charm to the town.

Like Yowah, Eulo has seasonal variations in its population. In winter some dozen beekeepers bring their bees from the south to feed on the eucalypts in the area. The honey, a distinctive Warrego variety, is dark and delicious.