General News
16 July, 2025
Outback station thrilled to host iconic trophy
The Melbourne Cup turned up at Stirling Lotus Vale Station last Friday.
Who would have thought that an interesting Instagram account would lead to the Melbourne Cup turning up on your doorstep, thousands of miles from Flemington?
That’s exactly what happened at Stirling Lotus Vale Station as the $850,000 trophy and three-time Cup-winning jockey Glen Boss came to the remote Gulf station on Friday as part of the Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour.
“(The Victoria Racing Club) actually reached out to me via our Instagram page,” said Steevylee Gow, the business manager of Gulf Coast Agricultural, which boasts half a dozen properties in North Queensland.
“Obviously, we’re quite active on (Instagram).
“They said, ‘would you be willing to let us come out and visit?’
“We’ve got six stations, so I said, ‘how about we get everybody together to make it easier for you?’
“There ended up being roughly 70 of all our staff there.
“Our bosses flew up from New South Wales with their family and then we all came together at Stirling and had a big barbecue and everyone had a chance at holding the Cup and getting lots and lots of photos.”
Ms Gow also clarified the names of the properties.
“Lotus Vale is just Stirling’s outstation. So Stirling is the main station, but technically it’s called Stirling-Lotus Vale Station,” she said after some confusion in other media outlets.
“We’ve also got Van Rook, Inkerman and Dorunda. And then we’ve also got Macaroni, which is another little outstation.”
Ms Gow said it was “quite special” to host the Melbourne Cup.
“Everyone just couldn’t believe that they’d come to us, you know, that they got the opportunity,” she said.
“A lot of us like living remote and, being country people, travelling to the Melbourne Cup carnival is probably never going to happen for a lot of us.
“And even if you do, you’re probably not going to get to touch it and muck around with it and get as many photos as we did.
“So yeah, it was quite special and we’re very lucky that they travelled out.”
Labelled the race that stops a nation, the team at Gulf Coast also live by the Melbourne Cup mantra.
“As stations, every year we travel into Karumba for the Cup,” Ms Gow said.
“We book out all the accommodation a year in advance and we stay in there for about three days.
“We do our Christmas party while we’re at it and we all stay in there and we watch the race and we all have dinner and drinks at the Sunset Tavern.”