Longreach home of QANTAS and for interested people check our Where we Have Been Map Bottom right
Longreach is also the home of the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, which was officially opened in 1988 by Queen Elizabeth II. The aim of the centre is to showcase the history and the culture of life in rural Australia. Since its opening, over 1 million people have passed through its doors.
Longreach was one of the founding centres for Qantas, the Australian domestic and international airline. One of the airline’s original hangars remains in use at the Longreach Airport and is listed on the Australian National Heritage List.A full Boing Jumbo 747 is open to the public and for the adventurous they can stand on the wing for $70!! we didnt !! we need the money to spend in a pub ANY pub !! The town is now the home of the Qantas Founders Outback Museum.
The Stockmans Hall of Fame is an amazing building with lots of artifacts and photos of a time not so long ago and is a must to see (The Cowboy show was brilliant more pics on my next Blog)
Bye bye Winton, Middleton ran Dry, on towards Longreach
Winton can only be described as charming It is a very laid back country country town and suits my new life style greatly As described in the previous blog this place is famed for its “mysterious” lights known as the Min Min We travelled towards Longreach with sign that promised us fuel in the next 170 kms When we got to this old outback place the fuel had dried up years ago! IF you enlarge the picture of the Bowser you will notice the glass meter is chock-a-block with dead insects !! We had no choice but to carry on and approx 20 kms before hitting Longreach we ran out of fuel !! BUT being very aware of this happening we carry extra fuel (enough to get us out of trouble and into Longreach !!) If nothing else our travels have taught us how to prepare for emergencies AND there is always help on hand (we treasure our CB radio !!)
Winton and Arnos Wall
we passed thru Winton mid Queensland and discovered this amazing wall surrounding a house built by a local lad who goes by the name of Arno (A bit about the Architect Arno was born in 1930 and spent his youth as a merchant seaman travelling the world. He immigrated to Australia from Germany some 30 years ago and spends his time in and around Winton opal mining.)Some of the artefacts grown into the wall are amazing to say the least including microwaves/toilets/machinery of all kinds including a concrete mixer !! This wall merits a slide show all of its own being SO unique
Winton Founder of Qantas
This is a great small country town! We were treated to anight of nostalgia at an original 1918 open air cinema (NOT a drive in) where the seats are deck chairs and in fron of the big screen is a roller skating rink !! Movies were short and from the 40s PLUS we stood up for the Queen !! something I haven’t seen since a kid !!Popeye was the feature warm up cartoon The more than a billion stars above were a fantastic backdrop to th whole evening It events like this that made me realize what a great country Australia is !! The cinema also boasts the biggest deckchair made in the world just a little history on WINTON ….Winton is the birth place of Qantas, Winton’s principle claim to fame is that an incident at the nearby Combo Waterhole at Dagworth Station is said to be the stimulus behind the uniquely Australian anthem ‘Waltzing Matilda’.
A statue to the ‘Swagman’ , the unfortunate tramp who was drowned, has been erected in honour of the legendary Banjo Patterson song., and of late the source of major dinosaur fossils finds.
-
- For Sale
-
- Musical notes
-
- Magical open air cinema
-
- Pre movie Fun in days gone by
On the Road to Boulia Queensland
Wow !! this was a magic stretch of road,almos 300 kms on a single road at average speeds of 100kms per hour.Rule of the road is IF the oncoming vehicle is smaller they will pull off road to let me pass IF oncoming is larger I pull over ! Same size half road half gravel AND this rule actually worked !!Met a nice bloke from Adelaide having a 6 week from his work environment travelling around simply because he can!!Daniel was good company to be in and a good conversationalist There is a legend here and part of this legend …. At about 10 pm, as a stockman passed the Min Min locality (Boulia) a strange glow appeared right in the middle of the little cemetry located at the rear of the old hotel. The glow appeared to grow to the size of a small watermelon, hover over the graveyard, and then move off in the same direction the stockman was travelling. Terrified, the man galloped towards Boulia with the light allegedly following him all the way, until he reached the outskirts of town. Not surprisingly, police and locals gave the poor man’s story little credence. There are many other stories on the Min Min too numerous to put on my Blog
Mount Isa Part 2
The Bus is now back to normal hard to believe a 1/4 hole in a rubber hose can almost stop it !!We visited the very scenic Lake Moondarra situated about 10 kms outside Mt Isa and it is just like an Oasis !! In 1956, work began on the new Leichhardt Dam.the 26.5 metre (87 feet) earth wall was completed early 1958Since 1985 They have released 161,506 Sooty Grunter and 55,595 Barramundi fingerlings, as stocks became available. The impressive numbers of Barramundi caught, has resulted in the annual Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic being introduced Statistics:Inundated Area : 2375 ha.Catchment Area: 114,000 Full Capacity: 107,000 ML Next stop Boulia mid Queensland
Farewell Mount Isa Part 1
We have fortunately enjoyed our stay here,the bus is (hopefully) fixed at no cost to us and took 5 minutes to repair !The people here have been friendly to the extent the next door long stay caravanner delivered our newspaper daily and free of charge !! Local advice on what to do re getting our bus back on the road saved us quite a lot of money (Thanks to RACQ and the big bloke with the big white beard !)The pubs and clubs offer a variety of entertainments and excellent choice of beers (high on my priority list!!) The town although not very pretty and HUGE chimney stacks pour out lots of pollution is outsider friendly !! Because of the nature of the mining LEAD warnings are advertised daily ie wash your hands at every opportunity !! All being well we are heading for Longreach and should take us around 3 days (If we stick to our 200km travel a day) I realize I may have repeated some photos I haven’t had time to re edit
Mount Isa Underground Hospital
During WW2 Darwin was bombed by the Japanese and as a precaution the strategically placed Mt Isa decided to build an underground hospital “just in case”It is fully equipped and when the war was over the Hospital was abandoned and left intact (fortunately it was never used !) It is now as it was in 1945 a permanent monument to people who cared Considering it was dug out and built into a hillside it is an extraordinary feat for its time. This days blog is dedicated to those people who under extreme conditions (heat,flies etc) made Mt Isa a safer place to live in
-
- Veyr healthy
-
- GUZZUNDA,s
-
- for the overflow !!
The Buffs Club
Is named after the RAOB (Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes) Society thatI became a member of in the early 60s (Victory Hotel Blackpool) and is strictly men only who are true to the British Crown.This fraternal group has spread around the world BUT modern times dictate membership is on the decline I had good times at meetings and monies taken thru the night were given to various charities Looking into the history of the RAOB I found it interesting it was founded by members of the theatre profession in the 1820s The Buffs is known for its great atmosphere, restaurant & food, coffee shop, gaming lounge, sports bar, bottle shop and function facilities.SO it is pleasing to know whilst here waiting for the bus to be righted we will utilize these facilities to the hilt !!!
FREE Courtesy Bus !! Great !
Mt Isa Queensland (with a little Plagiarism thrown in)
Mount Isa City covers an area of over 43310 square kilometres, making it geographically the second largest city in Australia. With a population of approximately 23500, Mount Isa is a major service centre for North West Queensland, and a thriving city well equipped to satisfy residential, business and industrial needs.
The residents of Mount Isa lack nothing when it comes to shopping. All of the shops and services that one would expect to find in a modern city can be found in Mount Isa.
Major retail chains, such as K-Mart, Coles, Retravision, Harvey Norman, and Woolworths (PLUS good clubs and pubs) are represented together with a wide range of specialist retailers.
In 1923 lone prospector John Campbell Miles, while travelling on a gold prospecting trip to the Northern Territory, camped by the banks of the Leichhardt River. Sampling a nearby rock outcrop, he realised that it was heavily mineralised.and had stumbled on to one of the world’s richest copper, silver, lead and zinc ore bodies.He decided to call his discovery “Mount Isa” after the stories he had heard of the Mount Ida goldfield in Western Australia.Almost 100 years later, the Mount Isa Mine (now owned by Swiss mining giant, Xstrata) is still one of Australia’s largest producers of copper ore.The early pioneers of Mount Isa faced many hardships. The lack of water, remoteness, the summer heat, high costs and scarcity of essential items made life extremely difficult.Despite these hardships, the pioneers endured to create a city that has attracted people from all around the world.
Watch me play Didgeridoo
Geoffs Life After Work ! 