Longreach

The Qantas Founders Museum and Stockman’s Hall of Fame are two important tourists sites in Longreach and we spent nearly a full day in each, they are both well laid out with plenty to enjoy.

As you probably know Qantas was formed in the Outback, in Longreach and Winton. The museum is filled with interesting items and photos and stories from time past. We did a tour of a 747 which has sections replaced with perspex so that we could look into the workings of the plane. Our excellent guide provided us with interesting information and inside stories, we saw where the black box lives, went into the cargo bay, flight deck etc etc.

The Stockman’s Hall of Fame is another interesting place to visit with focus on the drovers, cattle men, the pioneers and people of the region and the hardships they faced with multi media presentations and nostalgia. This is boom or bust country, the floods have come and gone and 2010 is good year for the country. Longreach is on the Tropic of Capricorn and a popular place to be a this time of the year, grey nomads are thick on the ground. The caravan park we stayed in has over 300 sites and was three quarters full! Next stop is Winton.

PS - the circus at Barcaldine was great, we were a bit worried about the animal content but they all looked healthy and well looked after. It was a full house, apparently well attended by locals who came from outlying stations as well as from the township. Bad luck that I sat behind the biggest man in town, and I mean BIG, who was also wearing the biggest hat - I wasn't brave enough to ask him to take it off and ended up having to peer around him.