By Annette Shailer
The 30th annual Story Bridge Hotel Australia Day Cockroach Races saw some elite racers take line honours at what is known as the greatest gathering of thoroughbred cockroaches in the world.
Cocky Balboa, Ita Buttroach, Osama Bin Liner, My Fair Cock and Sir Roach-a-Lot were just some of the cockroach racers battling it out for the sporting calendar highlight.
This year the funds raised from the races will go towards a new community/ school bus for the Grantham area and the purchase of computers for Brisbane schools that have been flood affected.
Suppliers got onboard by donating equipment that the hotel would normally pay for on the day and instead putting that money towards the funds.
Story Bridge Hotel owner, Richard Deery, said that the hotel was lucky to escape the floods despite having front row seats to it, but others weren’t so lucky.
The Australia Day Cockroach Races were a unique way the hotel could help raise funds and support those affected from the floods.
“From small beginnings in 1981 the Annual Cockroach Races began out of a conversation from two locals sitting at the old Story Bridge Hotel Bombshelter bar discussing who had the biggest cockroaches in their suburb," Deery said.
"To settle this discussion it was suggested by one of the Deery family for them both to bring the cockroaches from their respective suburbs to the pub on Australia Day and these questions would be answered. This is how one of Brisbane’s most unique and iconic events began."