When planning this trip, my dad had always wanted to see
this part of the country, and also to visit the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and
Qantas Founders Museum, and all of our other stops just fell into place around
that! So finally, 11 days into our trip, we arrived in Longreach, our original
main destination. We’d made good time, so once we had checked in to the caravan
park and set up the camper trailed, we decided to make use of the afternoon by
visiting the Stockman’s Hall of Fame. The museum is quite interesting with a
lot of history of that part of our country, and we spent 2-3 hours wandering
around looking at and reading the different displays, and watching a few short
movies.
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| Merchant Cart, Stockman's Hall of Fame, Longreach, QLD |
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| Stockman's Hall of Fame, Longreach, QLD |
The next day we went to the Qantas Founders Museum, and we
both found this museum even better than the Stockman’s. Neither of us had any
idea about how QANTAS started up, all of the trials and tribulations of those
early years, and we just found it really interesting. We spent about 3 hours or
so there and then looked around town for a bit, before returning to camp to get
ready for our evening out.
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| Soldier's uniform and medals, Qantas Founders Museum, Longreach, QLD |
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| Model T Ford, Qantas Founders Museum, Longreach, QLD |
This was one of the many great, informative displays that give an insight into how tough life was in those days, and how tough the people were!
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| Qantas Founders Museum, Longreach, QLD |
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| Qantas Founders Museum, Longreach, QLD |
It's hard to imagine that the Qantas we know today started as a regional air service doing a mail run and short passenger rides in planes like this!
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| Qantas Founders Museum, Longreach, QLD |
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| Qantas Founders Museum, Longreach, QLD |
I managed to squeeze in some birding at the museum when I noticed this little fluffball sitting on a propeller!
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| Black-faced Woodswallow on a Catalina propeller, Qantas Founders Museum, Longreach, QLD |
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| Qantas Founders Museum, Longreach, QLD |
Before we left for our trip, we bought a Longreach Legends
Pass through Outback Aussie Tours, which in addition to entry to both museums,
also included the Drover’s Sunset Cruise and Smithy’s Outback Dinner & Live
Show. This was a real trip highlight for us. We were picked up from the caravan
in a tour coach and taken the short distance to the edge of the Thomson River,
where we boarded the cruise boat. On board, the captain kept up a running commentary
on the surroundings, wildlife and history of the area, pointing out things of
interest along the way. The captain’s wife and second mate was also busy on
board, serving nibbles and drinks, and doing all the things second mates do to
operate the boat.
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| Thomson River, Longreach, QLD |
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| Thomson River, Longreach, QLD |
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| White-necked Heron, Thomson River, Longreach, QLD |
We
stopped at a suitable spot to view the sunset, where they sprinkled some
crushed up Sao biscuits at the water’s edge, which attracted some Emmett’s
Short-necked turtles. These turtles are apparently an endemic species to this river.
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| Emmett’s Short-necked turtle, Thomson River, Longreach, QLD |
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| Thomson River, Longreach, QLD |
After viewing the gorgeous orange sunset, the boat headed
back to Smithy’s place for dinner. Our entertainer for the evening was Doug
Stuart, a great country singer who kept us all laughing and singing along all
night. The food was really good too – to keep things efficient, they operate in
an alternate drop. Main was barramundi or lamb, and dessert was
apple & custard pie or cheesecake. I got the barramundi and the apple pie,
and my dad had the other two. Delicious! Then everyone had damper with golden syrup and
billy tea. It was a really good night, and I highly recommended it to anyone
heading up this way!
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| Doug Stuart entertaining diners at Smithy's, Longreach, QLD |
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