When Matty Starkoff was 13 years old, he spotted two pigeons over his school fence in the outback Queensland town of Winton.
They turned out to be racing pigeons from Victoria and Toowoomba that had lost their way.
Their owners told the teenager to keep them.
"From then I was hooked," Starkoff said.
Fast forward 20 years and two pigeons bred by Starkoff in Winton are set to represent Australia in an international pigeon racing event in Thailand.
Lady Luck and Augustus are their names.
"I've sourced mine out from the best of Australia. It took me ages and now I own the best pigeons in Australia," Starkoff said.
Ruffling feathers with the best in the world
The pair will race against more than 8,000 pigeons from almost 50 countries at the Pattaya International Pigeon Race in Thailand in December.
For biosecurity reasons, they will never return to Australia.
The pair will be auctioned off in Asia to the highest bidder.
There's a $2.6 million prize pool up for grabs, but the young father-of-five says he is in it for the joy of competition.
"For me, it's the thrill," Starkoff said.
"That feeling, like I just bred a bird that flew 900km in 10 hours, it's absolutely incredible."
How does it work?
Starkoff competes in a style of competition called one loft racing.
In one loft racing, a trainer manages a loft in which there are birds from many different owners.
The birds are kept in the same conditions and trained by the same methods — which is said to be the most accurate measure of the best racing pigeon.
Electronic tags let organisers know with certainty where each pigeon is placed in the race.
But how they make it home is more of a mystery.
How do they know how to get home?
Cairns pigeon racer Les Thompson, who races his birds for charity, said "no-one really knows" how the birds know how to get back home.
"It's more serious than you would think," Thompson said.
"I tell people, 'You know what you're looking at there?' They say 'Pigeons?' I say 'No, society' because you get leaders and followers.
"What you want is a bird that will think for itself and fly home.
“If most of them are followers, if a bird goes off in the wrong direction, it may have 100 birds follow it."
Leaving behind a legacy
For Starkoff, Thailand is just the beginning of his grand plan for the 'Starkoff pigeons'.
"I'm taking this to the grave, for sure," he said.
"I want to be in the Australia Pigeon Journal ... I want to have people knowing my name and chasing my strain.
"It's the legacy I want to leave behind."
