Longreach

After the dinosaur thingy I hightailed it along to Longreach – as I had booked into a Cobb & Co Coach tour at 3.30. Luckily I arrived with heaps of time to spare so I did a reco of the town & headed out to the QANTAS museum to have a look there & to book into be able to do a wing walk.

As Qantas Founder’s Museum is a big place & I had a little time before the Cobb & Co thing, I had a look around PART of the museum. It’s a big place with some really interesting history – especially on how they started the airline that “Brings Australia to the world” (or the world to Australia – or both – I can’t remember their slogan).  And they had some replica planes and engines, etc – all good to have a look at.

I made my way back downtown to go on the Cobb & Co Coach – it was good but unfortunately due to the rains they had had this week, the ground was very soft & boggy & the horses couldn’t pull very fast.  The coach left from the back of a big western
type clothing/retail store – they are very well set up & I think they must run it 6+ times each day – when I rang the day before they were still selling the 2.30 tour & when I went they were still having another one at 4.30 – so I guess it’s a fairly popular thing to do.
They had 5 horses pulling the coach – and they all looked fit & healthy – so I don’t think they are overworking them or anything – they were going to change the team after our lot I think. It was fun to get in the coach & go for a bit of a drive – and they did do a little bit of a gallop for us – but not much due to the ground.  It would have been no fun at all to travel like this “back in the day”  I don’t think, considering a trip of 200kms could take days – squashed inside the coach with other smelly, sweaty hot people – you’d really have to want to get someplace fairly desperately!!

As I’d rung the day before to book into the caravan park (the other one in town was booked out) and been told that they would be able to fit me in – no problems – no need to make a booking, I was quite surprised (and not at all pleasantly) when I walked into the reception to be greeted with “if you haven’t got a reservation I can’t help you”!!!  After explaining to the lady that I had spoken to the blokey the day before and been told I would be fine and some other discussions about the fact he wouldn’t take a booking from me, I was told I could go out the back & see if there were any suitable sites (again, due to the rain, the place was a mess and people had just been camping wherever they thought was good for them).  Luckily there were about 5 sites I could have taken, so I had a home for the next couple of nights. And, although I forgot to take a photo of it, I could see the lit up tail of the Qantas 747 from my back door – so it was quite alright.

The next morning I got up & made my way back to the Qantas museum (all of about 500 metres!!) and commenced climbing in and around and eventually on the wing of the 747 they have on display there.  For those who don’t know the story, Qantas (bless their hearts) donated the plane to the Qantas Founders Museum several years ago. Its great that it’s there – the museum isn’t run by Qantas – and I’m not  sure how much they actually have  to do with it. The trouble they had, when getting the donated 747 to Longreach,  was
that the Longreach airport airstrip is about ½ as wide & about ½ as long (or shorter) than a 747 would normally need to land on.  But, after a lot of simulated landings, lots of load lightening in the aircraft and lots of good wishes, the pilot made a textbook landing (didn’t even use all of the runway he had available) and all was great. The biggest problem they had apparently was turning it around to bring it back to the museum/airport part – and eventually – instead of being towed as nothing at Longreach airport was strong enough to tow it (they only move little airy planes), the captain used the plan’es power & did it himself – the photos are great as you can see the plane and lots of red dust its kicking up to turn itself.

The 747 tour and the Wing walk pretty much took me ALL over the plane – so it was interesting to see what’s going on above & below you  when you’re on one of those big planes. We saw the cargo hold, climbed down & looked around the storage areas underneath the plane, sat in the cockpit, found out that one of the cargo bays (where your bags go) isn’t heated and another one (where they put the puppies & cats that fly) is; and
eventually out onto the wing of the plane. This was OK fun – not something you’d get to do every day – but not as exciting as skydiving or bungee jumping – but still nice.

Me on the wing of a plane

From Qantas to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame (again about 500m across the road). The building this is housed in is great and there’s a LOT of interesting stuff here, including pioneering, rodeoing, mustering, etc.  I enjoyed it, but found it too “museum-y” after the hands on, physically walking around & touching of the Qantas planes.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have a show on when I was there – the next one was later the next day & as I had
a timeline at this stage, I needed to keep going. So, whilst I think for “cityfolk” the Hall of Fame is probably great (lots of things and info they may never have seen/heard before) I wasn’t “in love” with the place – but I possibly didn’t give it a fair enough go – as I was trying to get done before 4pm – when I had to get picked up for my “paddle wheel boat excursion”!!

The boat ride was nice – got picked up in a bus from the caravan park and taken out of town a few kms to the Thomson River to go on a paddle wheeler. The boat did have paddle
wheels on it – but its nothing like you’d see on the Murray at places like Echuca – it was a lot smaller – but still nice and the river is quite big – deep & wide – which a LOT of the rivers up here seem to be – a bit different to our smaller rivers around home. But all very nice and we watched the sunset on the water.  Then we went back to the “camp” where we were feed beef stew & billy tea with damper and they had a fellow with some bush poetry – all very nice and well run/organised.  Something a little bit different (and, like the Cobb & Co coach & the wing walk – totally touristy – but, hey – that’s what I am!!)

So, that was really my stay in Longreach. I could have stayed here longer, but had organised to meet a friend (Genelle) in Townsville on Monday – so I wanted to get there Sunday evening – so it was on the road again.

It was a big day driving, with not really all that much to report on country wise – except the changes coming in closer to the coast – we moved back into mountains – totally different to those around Mt Isa – these were “normal” types of mountains with trees and not so many boulders, etc. I got to Charters Towers and after several unsuccessful phone calls, managed to find us a campsite for the week.  Note to self – a little pre-planning may be
in order to avoid the touristy places in the middle of the school holidays and when Townsville Show is on one weekend (and therefore public holiday Monday) and the Townsville 400 V8 supercars are on the following week!!!  But, luckily, I got one campsite for the week – to save having to pack up & move all the time. By the time I drove in
& found the place (in the back blocks of suburban Townsville – but – what did I expect!!) it was well past dark – so I’m not even sure what the scenery was like the last few miles coming in!!!

Longreach – July 1 & 2