Outback Queensland road trip Day 11 Exploring Longreach

By the numbers
7.10kms
8,966 steps
1 Tour
1 random Museum
This would be our last day in Longreach and I think we have had a good time exploring in the town. The night before the people who ran the tour group thanked us all for spending money in the towns as we went as there is a little extra money floating around. I couldn’t say it was a city as it doesn’t have a Coles, Woolies, Maccas or even a KFC. I wasn’t exactly expecting that as I thought Longreach was a little bigger.

The plan for the day was to do a tour that mum had found and I decided to put in for so that we could go on it. We would get to see how the school of the air worked, these days called school of distance education. We would soon learn this school was one of many located in Queensland like in Cairns, Cloncurry and Brisbane. The students do physically show up at certain times and the curriculum is ran at home by either a mother or governess. If a child misses a subject like say English they then can access it later as a recording as they would miss the interaction. The school has changed with technology from computers we now have, from radio that have a limited range to correspondence where the school stuff was posted to the property and posted back to the teacher taking months to be marked. They also have school excursions once a year to the coast or the next year to the snow. They did go to the Gold Coast and every 2 years there is a show the school performs and this year they will be located in Brisbane. The school goes until year 10 and there are other distance schools that do years 11 and 12, or they go to boarding school somewhere like say Brisbane or Cloncurry. When part of the school physically they wear a school uniform, but that’s about it. It was good that we got a short tour around the school grounds and there were displays of statues built with off shoots of what was found in sheds by fathers helping their kids as it was during a drought to take the parents minds off it.

We took off into town to see the information centre as we were wanting to know about some roads to Hughenden. I was thinking of going from Muttaburra and then to Hughenden, but after some advice from the lady who happened to have lived in Muttaburra, it was recommended not to use that road at all. It was better to use the Winton road to there as there were more cars if you had issues like break down. Considering Muttaburra was an hour from Longreach and then to turn around would end up being 2 hours to Winton. At least we now know and wont attempt roads that we cant handle. There has been a little rain down at Windorah that has closed the road so we have been really lucky on that front. We learnt our lesson with a road trying to get to the cemetery as well. My boots collect mud over the last few days.

The Longreach wander starts from that point as we enjoyed a beautiful day in the hot sun. Next to the information centre was the QANTAS Park as you need one of them with being part of the Qantas heritage trail that heads to Cloncurry. Beside the council chambers is the marker for the tropic of Capricorn and the further we went there was a bee hive in a long that had carvings on them. What I was wanting to do was visit the train station. It was a little busy with several bus’ as they were doing a tour and loading people on. You could book a bus and train tour, although I havnt looked into this one. The train station was just a small country type station with a booking office for the train / bus tour and a couple of things from the past. We ended up on a wander to a saddlery where I got a new belt.

The next destination was to a powerhouse museum. I didn’t know anything about this museum apart from old vehicles out the front and something about a bore. The museum was more than that. It had a little about the local history and the main part of the museum was about the large machines in a room and how they generated electricity for the town of Longreach and the people who worked on them in hot sweating conditions. The machines were loud and could be heard for several kilometres and were even turned off when the council thought people could get by on moonlight. There was also changes with new buildings being built that had different electrical voltage charges as they were DC when everything had been on the voltage for AC. It was interesting walking around and having a look at everything. The substation in Barcaldine eventually took the load with Longreach only being used during peak times. There was a cottage from the NoGo station that had a static display of how a house was set up for the days in the past when they had no electrics. The nearby swimming pool had been filled with heated bore water and took days to cool down, but was eventually filled up. The pool would be excavated for archaeological treasures and there was a bit of rubbish from the powerhouse and from around town as well.

Once we were done at the museum, we went to see an arts centre in a heritage listed house that I had not noticed was the old ambulance station from the 1920s. Once I walked outside and looked I fully realised, but I thought the arts side of things was interesting. It did explain why there was a small display of medical books and about Queensland ambulance. A painting inside the building showed what it looked like when it was in operation, which was a lot different to now. By this time I wanted to get back to get some washing done before we moved on the next day. I checked the machine it was free I grabbed my stuff I lost the game of wills. I had the waiting game that worked out in the end.

Outback Queensland road trip Day 10 Longreach tours

 

 

By the numbers

1 coach tour

Billy can lunch

 

The day started early again and I was hopeful that we would be doing the tours that we could not do the day before. There had been no rain the night before and everything looked promising. We went into town for the first part of the tour, which was the Cobb and Co coach tour that included the horses pulling us. The tour was going ahead and that was the good news I wanted to hear as there were other plans for the last day in Longreach. The day would start with a tour on the horses, morning tea and then discussion about carriages and then a movie.

 

While waiting for the first part of our tour to start we had the town crier who was in his 90s and still doing a great job as part of the tour group. He was telling stories from when life was different and a lot tougher especially when there were many more pubs in town. He told the story of Jackie Howe a sheep sheerer who actually lived in the area or close to it. We went on to be the first group to take a ride on the stage coach, although we would not go into the town commons as it was too boggy, but we instead went around town except for a few muddy side streets where we could let the horses go faster. There were two carriages being led around town and we followed the first one. The man who started Cobb and Co was an American who stayed for a while as the company grew in Australia. They not only carried people, but also the mail to towns along the route too.

 

When we got back we could have a look in the shop before we were let back outside to hear a chat about the different sorts of carriages that were used in the days of horse and cart, which would be replaced by motorised vehicles. We ended up watching an Australian movie about a kid called Smiley who got into loads of trouble and tried to be good. After that there was a billy can lunch that included an apple, sandwich, a drink and a cake of sorts. We then had several hours before we would be picked up by a coach and go out to the next part of the tour.

 

We had a river cruise planned with the same outfit. They picked us up from where we were staying and took us out to where they did the river cruise and then fed us. They had gotten a paddleboat from down in Victoria and bought it up to Queensland by land. It ended up sinking partially because the local turtles seemed to have a liking for the calking in the boat, and nature did the rest. The paddle boat cruise was nice as we got nibblies even though it didn’t seem to be that long. When we got back another bus load of people turned up. Then we got the story of the paddleboat that sank. By this time the other boat had returned and there were campfire stories and poems before being served up food. They were a great bunch and we hopped on the bus again to head back into town even if the driver forgot our stop and then realised.

Outback Queensland road trip Day 9: Longreach, Changing plans

 

 

By the numbers

Plans changed 2

Bogged 1

Randomness happens 2

Walked 7.61kms

 

Overnight I listened to the rain on the roof for a couple of hours. I think there was rain for most of the night and I wouldn’t know it, but this little bit of wet weather would change my whole day around as plans would shift and swap days. We were booked for an early start and I was happy to be on the road just before 8am so I could go on a stage coach ride in the morning with lunch and morning tea, then a paddle boat ride later that afternoon with dinner and sunset. That was what I hoped for.

 

The reality was much different. We turned up and was told the tour would be unable to proceed as it was too wet for the coach and the horses so we could change it for the next day. The thing with tomorrow was that I had other plans and wasn’t sure if the Qantas Founders museum would allow for that. I told the lady at the tour group that I will rock up and ask. She loved that idea. We left and then turned up at the museum just as it was opening for the day. I was told I sure can change the day and got a wrist band where I could come and go as I pleased, and if I wanted to could jump on any tour.

 

I was happy for this and was able to walk into the museum. It was about the people who founded the museum, and the hardships of the country. The two main founders veterans of Gallipoli and had done some flying during World War 1 had seen the need for flights in the regional part of Australia especially Queensland. Travel to many places could take weeks or months due to weather conditions especially if the ground was boggy after rain. There was even a point in the life of the company where Qantas was building their own aircraft until the newer versions came out that performed better. They even had numerous discussions with John Flynn who would go on to create the Royal Flying Doctors, and was told they were not there technologically to do so. Throughout the museum they had interviews with family of the founders and even included talks with Nancy Bird about her relationship with Qantas. There was quite a lot more about the business than I had ever thought about including stories about their engineer who could fix a plane, but not a car. I could have gone of the other tours that were on offer, but the museum itself was remarkable and that includes showing the different uniforms of flight attendants and pilots over the years.

 

After several hours of reading about Qantas and looking at their many displays, I ended up in the gift shop to have a look and then we were off to have a look at Longreach Cemetery. We started off on one end and then the road became soft and we were a little stuck. I got out and pushed to get unstuck and we learnt just how bad a wet unsealed road in the area would be like after rain. The mud was sticky and we got out, which was lucky. We returned to the room to look for something to clean my boots and wash the car. We ended up at the local carwash and that was closed and there wasn’t another one to be found anywhere. We did try the cemetery again from a different side and the road was sealed.

 

The problem with walking around the Longreach Cemetery was that the whole area was soft and depending on where you would walk, you would sink in the soft ground. I wanted to find several of the people who had died on the Qantas plane that had crashed in Longreach back in the 1930s. If I was going to get muddy feet in a cemetery as I had to clean my boots, I wasn’t wanting to stick around for too long. I tried sticking to the stones and the further I walked the more I realised I would get bogged. While it was an interesting wander I thought it was best we didn’t linger on the soft ground as we would have more things to clean. When we returned I set to wiping the excess mud off my boots and got them to a point where I could just wash the mud off by hand. I did get to watch planes land as the airport is across the road. Around this time the second part of out tour was cancelled due to the bus not being able to get to the paddleboat. We also changed that for tomorrow, so will try again.

 

The next part of the adventure begins for the day and I liked this bit of randomness. We headed to the town of Ilfracombe, which was around 20kms down the road. We stopped and then I was directed to what was beside us. It was in a way a living museum as there were machinery lining the side of the road from trucks to earth moving equipment known as the machinery mile. Mum had been there before and this was my first time. We walked all the way along the street to see what there was. There were trucks, old pumps, a bottle display and static displays of life in the old days. There was a house that was the old police station that had pictures of a station that was called Wellshot that told about life on the property. We did have a look in the pub and there were hats on the walls and money stuck to the roof. I found the town to be interesting as I wandered around and it was slowly getting to late afternoon, so we headed back to Longreach for some food and to try again tomorrow. The RSL was packed when we arrived, but out food came fast. There was some tagalong group and another group and I would say it was hard to hear in there. We ate and got out of there.

Outback Queensland road trip Day 8: Longreach’s Stockman’s Hall of Fame museum

 

By the numbers

2 Fingerbuns

1 museum

4kms walking

 

The day was to start early as we had to be at the Hall of Fame by opening time as it was next door to where we are staying. Though next door is really a 15 min walk or a couple of minute drive and we had supplies to get when we finish at the museum. It opens at 9am and then closes at 3pm. We arrived around 10 mins before the doors opened and there were already people arriving and getting ready to storm the doors. We walked up to the entrance and then I went to have a look around the grounds and to take photos. The most annoying thing is that my phone updated the night before and was being a little bit buggy, but I cam work with that.

 

I seen people walking in and I rushed to get in the door as well. I had booked to see a show as well as the museum. It starts with a 15 min video explaining about the reason for the Hall of Fame. We had a little wait before that happened and I went looking around the gift ship. I think I found several things I wanted and that included a new wallet to replace the one I got in Scotland as it was starting to wear out. The movie was about the early settlers and how they worked the land including the shearers strikes and also the strikes at WaveHill, the hardships of the Federation drought and the hardships of working the land when it was boom and bust. It covered little bit of what we would see in the museum. Also had audio tours to go with the museum experience.

 

We were all handed an audio tour before leaving the theatre and it would be activated by a team member before we walk into the museum. Some of it would connect with the location, but you would have to hit the story that you wanted to hear. Kids were running around pointing them at everything and wondering what to do. There was even an elderly couple arguing with each other about one of them hitting buttons. I wandered through the parts about the various trails like Birdsville, the Strzelecki and the Canning Stock route with the watering holes and points of interest with little bits about the people who ran the cattle. There were people who moved cattle from one end of the country to the other doing over 1000kms all before modern conveniences like vehicles, motorbikes and helicopters. Not only were they talking about the stockmen, but also the people around them from Blacksmiths to the Hawkers who travelled to distant locations to sell their wares and bring supplies. They had a bloke making Australian Stock whips so you could see how they were being made.

 

I went onto looking at the display on the Royal Flying Doctors and how Errol Flynn the pastor started the service for the people of the outback and some of the hardships they went through themselves in getting to their patient. A video screen had the number of flights the day before and the number from today from that time in the day. Later in the day there would likely be more. One of the last displays was about the entertainment and I had somehow started one of Banjo Patterson’s poems that seems to go on for a while as many of the kids seem to have vanished even though it is school holidays. The entertainment was about the events that entertained the country people like shows that included rodeo events and even boxing bouts travelling through the bush. Dancing like debutante balls along with country bands who played. Pubs that might not have had beer or very little that had people like Slim Dusty sing about them and Dusty Dawson another country singer. There was an area dedicated towards country poets and I ended up with a list of poets like Banjo that I could listen to.

 

Another part of the whole visit was an extra that I had booked and that was an horse experience. A few people were going to see that and I am pretty sure people had arrived from a bus tour who filled up the stands. Mum and I ran out of seating in the stands and instead had front row seats below the stands. The MC who was giving the demonstration gave us a talk about the horses that were used like the stockhorse, the extra and the packhorse for the supplies they needed to bring with them on long trips away. There were dad jokes aplenty like talking about how he doesn’t use Samsung to get hold of his mates as apple is better, and leads out the horses. Others like counting all legs on the animals and then dividing them by 4 to get the correct number, or counting to 98 and rounding them up. The jokes that got groans out of everyone. He spoke about the stock whips and the trust in the horses that he would not hit them and the story about the Australian stock whip, we even got a live demonstration on how they used dogs to muster the sheep including how they were used just to hold the sheep in position. Apparently the horse had great trust in the bloke as he took one of the horses into an elevator at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. Trust that he wouldn’t harm it in any way, also about the ANZACs and the light horse charge at Beersheba.

 

 I was glad I had booked this part of the experience as it was worth going to and after we walked away there was still one small area that we had not yet seen and that was the Unsung Heroes of the bush. There were many people in the display that had been nominated for their hard work as research had been done, but wouldn’t appear in bookform outside of the Hall of Fame. Many had some form of hardship when working the land and could be away from home for months on end. One lady was names due to her role in getting the Stockman Hall of Fame to be built in Longreach and she petitioned the politicians, another worked for the Kidman pastoralists on their properties and there were a few people including women who were stockhands who still went out droving with their kids. I didn’t read every single story as there was plenty to read including one lady who had a sing named after her by Banjo Patterson that would be called Waltzing Matilda. Then we ended up having a coffee and browse through the gift shop.

 

After that we headed for the local supermarket and there was no Coles or Woolies here, only IGA. I needed flynetting as some places could have bad flies like out at Winton and it was suggested. The hot food I had a look at to see what they had and there was the usual chicken and pork, but also pluto pup, hamburgers and several other hot foods. They did have microwave meals that if you were in a pinch could be used. One of the guys bought out a freezer pallet and I would say it would take at least half hour to get done. Nothing like at home. We got the supplies we needed and that even included a bakery visit to get fingerbuns. We would later go out for dinner as we had a table reserved at the local caravan park. I did make another booking for Thursday morning and that was a tour of the Longreach School of the Air. Since its school holidays that would be interesting.

 

The weather for the next couple of days is supposed to be in the 30s and that is winter.