Charleyville and Morven
after leaving Longreach we headed for Roma passing thru Charleville (that has the weirdest monument to a dead tree that when alive sheltered Unionist at their meetings,interesting to know that these meetings led to the start of the Labour movement In 1902 Charleville was the location of an unsuccessful attempt by Clement Lindley Wragge to fire cannons into the clouds in order to break a drought.) after a very brief stop we stayed at Morven Oval overnight at a nominal $2 fee !! At this venue we discovered ( after a year !!) that we had reversing sensors 1IF only we had been told when buying the bus wouls have saved a couple of “reversing incidents” purely my fault Next stop Roma is going to be very interesting Sad part of the journey from Longreach to Roma is the fact that literally hundreds of slaughtered Kangaroos lie on the roads edge creaing a huge feeding frenzy for the birds Every so often the road would be speckled with large white shaped that resemble an English foot path with discarded chewing gum ! Only this time its bird poo left after the Kangaroos had been devoured !!We stopped at a lonely roadside lay-by for a cuppa and came across two elderly farmers in a brand spanking new 4WD truck and they invited us to sit with them for lunch.They are known as COCKIES which relates to farmers They offered us food (tucker) their wives had made for their 10 day adventure into the bush !!Highlight was when they lit a fire and boiled water in a grimy old tin and mad tea that that drank from very old tin cans !! Brilliant ! One of the blokes wore a battered old hat that could probably tell a few tales Very insignificant meeting BUT a real joy to experience !!!
Goodbye Longreach (appendix) coz I had a few more photos !!!
Last parting photos of Longreach Well worth staying a couple of days Met some very interesting people time to move on now
Longreach Cowboy Show
We visited the Rodeo Show and for $42 it was well worth the visit included was entry to the Hall of Fame.The Show and a great Lunch.Altho it was basically a one man show showing the audience his skills on horse back riding,Camel manoeuvring Sheepdogs doing their tricks with the BIGGEST cows I have ever seen !! they were taller than me! He harnessed 8 of these giants whilst reciting a poem,Brilliant stuff !! and then using his farm skills loaded logs onto a large wagon with NO effort shown He sang.told very funny stories whilst hanging upside down from his horse and he kept the large crowd mesmerized with his craft If in Longreach go and see this show you will NOT be disappointed !!
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- This cow is taller than me
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- Very Skillful
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- Me n a Cowboy
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- Great Show
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- I wanna Horse
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- Not a bad singer neither
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- Masterful Cowboy
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- Clever Camel
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- Should get him to train Annie
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.
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- For Sale
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- Musical notes
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- Magical open air cinema
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- 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
Watch me play Didgeridoo
Geoffs Life After Work ! 