Fly nets are essential headwear for racegoers hoping to avoid ingesting insects in Birdsville. Photo: Stephanie Gardiner/AAP PHOTOS

Ladies and gentlemen are expected to maintain a suitable standard at many city race meets, with sneakers, thongs, singlets and exposed midriffs strictly prohibited.

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Those standards are fervently flouted at the Birdsville Races, where punters come to break all the rules.

Thousands of racegoers have trekked to the outback Queensland carnival, held on the scorching fringes of the Simpson Desert, to take in the sport of kings as ordinary subjects.

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