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.
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