Broken Hill man's love of competitive pigeon racing leads his beloved birds from the backyard to Thailand
When he was 15, pigeons flew into Trevor Grillett's life.
As a teenage boy living in Broken Hill, in far west NSW, he started keeping them as pets before becoming interested in racing them competitively.
Now, almost 60 years later, and for the second time, Mr Grillett has birds competing in the Pattaya International Pigeon Race in Thailand.
"It's a challenge to compete against the best in the world — it's really what it's all about," he said.
"It drives you on."
Mr Grillett attends to the pigeons morning and night. (ABC Broken Hill: Lily McCure)
Six of Mr Grillet's birds are taking part in the event, which will be held over the Christmas holiday period at the end of the year.
The Australian pigeon racing season spans across the winter months, but Mr Grillett spends most days attending to his 150 birds in his Broken Hill backyard.
Morning and night, they are let out to fly around town for an hour and then whistled back.
The birds promptly obey as they know they will be fed when they return.
One-way ticket overseas
As well as the daily exercise, they are let out for two training sessions a week where they are released 80-100 kilometres away, then fly back home.
Mr Grillett said it was important to treat their training sessions like the real deal.
"They do their exercise ... as soon as they come back and land, the birds are always fed straight in, like you would on race days," he said.
The pigeon racing season in Australia spans across the winter months. (ABC Broken Hill: Lily McCure)
In the lead-up to the international race, the birds are placed in quarantine in Perth for a month before being sent overseas.
Next, they go through training in preparation for the six-race series, competing initially against approximately 11,000 birds, and then smaller groups as the birds who qualify progress.
The race lengths vary between 200-1,000km, with the total prize money for the entire series approximately $2.3 million.
Regardless of whether the pigeons win or lose, their ticket to Thailand is only one-way.
Following the race, the birds are auctioned off.
Mr Grillett watches their progress online from Broken Hill.
Passion for pigeons
Mr Grillett's prioritises pigeons with "strong homing ability" in his flock.
This is defined as having the ability to "find their own way home" to their loft, despite being released from hundreds of kilometres away.
But as he prepares his birds for the second international competition, introducing speed has been important.
"I think we've got faster ones this year," he said.
"We've introduced new bloodlines."
The appeal of breeding and racing pigeons has proved to be an addictive hobby for Mr Grillett.
"The time [and] effort ... it's just a thing that takes possession of you — you're always striving to do better with it," he said.
The pigeons have been part of Trevor and Marg Grillett's lives for many decades. (ABC Broken Hill: Lily McCure)
Fortunately for Mr Grillett, his wife Marg has been surprisingly tolerant of the flock that shares her backyard.
After several decades, she just sees her husband's unique hobby as another aspect of married life.
"Since 1981 the loft has been in the backyard," Mrs Grillett said.
"He's always with them — that just became part of our life."