This programme celebrates the origins of Picnic Day, the Northern Territory public holiday which locals say was granted so that Territorians could attend a race meeting in the now barely populated Harts Range. A couple of hundred kilometres north east of Alice Springs, the Harts Range once rang with the sounds of Italian mica miners and station folk for whom the Harts Range Races, held on the first weekend of August, were a community focal point. Though the mines are now abandoned, the races live on.
For more information about the Harts Range races visit: http://www.hartsrangeraces.org.au/
A great collection of photos of the races can be seen at http://www.hartsrangeraces.org.au/photogallery.html
Broadcast: Tuesday 26 March 2013 at 5.30pm on 8CCC Community Radio 102.1FM
Repeated: Following Friday at 9am and Sunday at 5.00pm
Producers: Megg Kelham