Stockmans Hall of Fame - Longreach

This morning went to the Stockman Hall of Fame which is a testament to the pioneers and also the stockmen and the station hands who ran this country and its sheep and cattle from the start of white civilisation. From the aborigines thru to the cattle dogs and the stock there was incredible footage and things to do.  There is a stockman show every morning which epitomises the work of the horses, dogs, man and even the bullock teams which tore out the pathways and roads of this country.  The guy who did the show was a great entertainer and he had three horses, a camel, 3 dogs and a team of 8 bullocks so with his poetry and yarns made for a good morning.

Was interested in the RFDS - Royal Flying Doctor Service which began in 1928 by John Flynn, with 1 aircraft leased from QANTAS with pilot and flying from 1 base in Cloncurry , Qld.  The Flying Doctor Service  now operates more than 60 aircraft flying from 21 bases in the country.  John Flynn conceived the idea in WW1 but had no aircraft to do the job so  the DH50A was chosen for the job.  The service now reaches over 7,000,000 sq. miles of the Australian continent serving 275,000 patients a year , one every 2 mins. on average.  RFD now has 8 bases and 20 aircraft in QLD.

It was the present queen's visit to the Broken Hill Base in 1954 which gave the FDS the  right to become the RFDS and it did in 1955.

In 1926 it was pedal power which connected the outback with the RFDS but today every call can make contact with a doctor in 30 secs. and an aircraft despatched within 45minutes.

* *  *  * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matilda Ann Waugh:  was the inspiration for the song Waltzing Matilda by Banjo Patterson.  At 8 yrs old she would sit on his knee and he would play her favourite songs which were mainly waltzes and he made a promise to her and her family that he would write a song for her especially.  At 21 she became post mistress of Boonoo Boonoo Post Office which was on her father's property, he was a butcher.  She married Gordon Waugh and had 6 children
and ended up on a station in outback Qld where her husband was a head stockman.

QANTAS Founders Museum

Witon was the birth place of QANTAS (Queensland and Northern Territories Aeriel Services) in 1921  moved to Logreach for its operational  purposes where Australia's first purpose built airstrip and the first QANTAS hangar was built and still exists today as a showplace for museum artefacts.  The museum is funded entirely by donations and sponsorships and is a purely voluntary organisation, a beautiful cafe attached with a wonderful outside area - reasonably priced as well, a welcome respite.

In the main musuem and galleries there are many film shows and interactive displays and the history of the 4 men who returned home after WW1 wondering what they were going to do with all of them having been flying in the war. Henry Fysh, Ginty Mcguiness, Kennedy (the first investor) and Walker.  These inspirational men wanted to tie the outback together where distances were so immense and so began what we now know today as QANTAS - I am sure they would turn in their grave if they could see what Alan Joyce is doing to the company they founded.  He is destroying a once mighty airline and I bet he is not taking a paycut as the founders had to do when the airline got into trouble near its beginning, Henry Fysh had to take a 12 1/2%pay cut as did all staff and directors - no golden handshakes in those days!!!!!!!!

You can tour the Boeing 707 'City of Canberra' which was the first registered Qantas jet aircraft..in Aust. and was discovered languishing in England at Southend airport so a team was sent to renovate, repair and bring it back to Aust. which was done and of course it now lives here happily in Longreach. and  wing walk is available on the wings of the 747 - only place in the world where one can do this.

 The original DC3 is here as is DH50 Iris the first aircraft used by the company that became the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service).  DH61 built in 1930 by Qantas and used on the Darwin sector of the London mail service.

Very interesting, we spent 4 hours there and really didn't finish but the dogs needed walking and you do get info'ed out.

Longreach School of Air

A short ride from Winton to Longreach - just 184kms - yeah - more road kill on the long boring, flat road, the countryside is boring too so the only distraction is - roadkill roos. 

Neverthe less, we are based at the Longreach Tourist c/van park, a small intimate park, very busy, still lot of travellers on the road, but the mgr/owner here Shane is so friendly and that seems to attract like.  Every morning at 10 and again at 4 the bell goes for communal coffee and tea with biscuits for anyone who wants to join him.  Of course he has the 'gift of the gab' and will natter non-stop.  Weds evening, our first night, there was a lovely campfire and a couple of the travellers had their guitars so out they came and we had a good campfire sing song, all Aussies songs of the outback.

David and I went to the LDSOE (Long Distance School of Education) - School of Air, here in Longreach.  This is one of 7 in Qld and covers an area of 402,712 sq kms - 3 times the size of England, twice the size of Victoria and 2 1/2 times the size of NZ.   Imagne a classroom thaT SIZE AND A PLAYGROUND AS BIG AS YOU WANT IT TO BE.

 We were treated to a lesson air with one of the teachers in the studio - of which there are 7.  She was teaching a prep. class (4-6) of which there are 6 in her class.  Since the intro. of computers and cameras the area covered has increased and every home in the long distance prog. has a hire comp. from the school. There are 24 teachers in the school based in Longreach, on a 3 yr. contract and a teacher's classroom could well be larger than 1000km across.

We  were then taken around the school where diff. projects were displayed - they do a curriculum the same as a land school but have a lot more hands on projects relating to their surroundings.  The materials required for the year are delivered to each family at the beg. of the year and that will last them through.  The school is so bright and has access to facilities and materials that any land school would be envious of.  They have constant access to an IT guy to keep the comps. up to scratch.  Each teacher will visit their students at least once a year as well,obviously travelling hundreds of kms. in many cases to spend two days.

The shool goes through to Yr 12 but Yrs. 10,11,12 usually are off to boarding school and those still in the prog. total 16 only  for this year - imagine.  Each yr. group from prep thru comes into the school here at Longreach for a week at lesast once in the year and there are sleeping facs. for 50 because the siblings all come as well.

I think out of everything I have seen this is by far the thing that has impressed me the most.

Winton

Dana and an inquisitive friendly visitor

 We arrived in Winton on Monday and it was 28 degrees,  we free camped in the carpark of the Winton Hotel - Jo the landlady, was very generous in allowing us to do so and we had free access to showers and toilets.  We spent a very pleasant evening with her, her husband Kevin and staff having a meal there.

Our outlook was over farmland as you can see and the neighbours were pretty friendly as well.  The dogs are certainly geting some experiences and seem to be settling into their side well - as it is now hot and dusty there is no water for swimming. We had a 250km drive to Winton along a very straight boring road and the only interruptions was the constant roadkill - every few metres was a 'roo carcas or a fresh one - rather depressing really.

Misty and Jake with their friends

Footprints in the street

We are also still in the heart of dinosaur country and they have a novel way of keeping their bins in one place, most businesses have these bin covers and their are huge footprints all over.  It is also the home of Banjo Patterson and Australia's best export - Waltzing Matilda.

Banjo Patterson and the words to Waltzing matilda.

The Matilda Centre is a wonderful museum a testament to a song and its writer.Not only that it is a testament to life in the Winton Shire from the pioneers, especially the women who worked trying to keep the stations going and raise a family often of 7-10 children - and we moan today.....

There are also many other things to look at including Arno's wall which was built by Arno, a German immigrant and instead of having a museum he has put everything into concrete in a long wall arund his old house - a hoarder, I think.  There is literally everything from machinery, toilets, kitchen sinks, old motor bikes, you think of it is there.

Tuesday evening we went to the caravan park and listened to two lady bush poets, 'friends' they were but boy were they good, theyn told bush stories, sang songs and recited poetry, some of which was very risque,  but we 'g.n's' loved it - a laugh a minute.

So Weds morning we bade farewell to Jo and her team from the Winton and headed 184kms s/west to Longreach.

Hughenden

Arrived in Hughenden at the c/van park about 1pm but even then it was hot 28 degrees - and it is winter.  Not used to this dry heat anymore.  Hughenden has a pop of 2191 and has the unique position of being in the heart of dinosaur country.  History for this area goes back hundreds of years with ;prehistoric history of over 100mil. years.  It is situated on the edge of a vast pre historic inland sea, once home to many terrestrial dinosaurs as well as martine reptiles making ths area well known as "Dinosaur Country" The first fossil ever to be found was in  1865 on a property west of Hughenden and so the discovery of a greater past was made.

Being an outback town, everywhere closes Sat. lunchtime until Mon morning, except the 2 pubs owned by the same family and the local food store. We are 250 km from Charters and 219km from Winton the s/west.  Why the hell anyone wants to live here I don't know, it gets so hot.  However, the streets are wide, the grass brown, plenty of parks and things for the kids.

The water, a life saver in the dry river

Sunday afternoon in Hughenden

Friends who joined us for lunch at the c/van park



.

Jake and his mate "Mutt"  (the muttasaurus)

Federation Rotunda



The river is a dry river but we were lucky because it had rained here in the last month which gave access to a water flow on one side of the river - the dogs went mad when they saw the water especially as it was clear - and he kites (like hawks) hovered as they saw Misty running around and they got closer and lower.  We put her back on her lead and David picked her up and put under his shirt.  They would have had her in minutes.

The Federation Rotunda is made frm 20' windmills brought in from a local property dated 1912 and 1916 The windmills were originally used to pump water for stock.

There is a very good dinosaur museum with interactive talks and explanations regarding the dinosaurs fossils found in this area.

Porcupine Goge Nat. P:ark is termed Austeralia's little Grand Canyon and is aprox. 1 hr drive from Hughenden.  This is one of 3 nat parks in the Flinders Shire



Just as the sun was going down

 This was taken at sunset on top of Mt. Walker just out of Hughenden, lastr night, where there are viewing points at six different lookout points giving 360 degree views..  It is 478m above sea level, and 152m above Hughenden.  Named by the explorer William Landsborough.

The lights of the township light up in a sea of black wilderness.

Mutt and his mates



Brekkie in the carpark

Colombia Poppet Head mine shaft reconstruction

Fri night saw us just 3km out of town on a free site which was a huge carpark for c/vans and campers but there were only three of us rigs there, it only had cold water but had wonderful big grass area for the dogs looking over paddocks.  Thought it would be busy with truck noise and the railway but have to say that 'the silence was deafening', was wonderful.

This was the shaft (reconstruction) which let the miners go down the shaft to mine the ore.  This was the other end of the c/van park where we were.

We also witnessed the wonderful rising of the full moon from the horizon up into the sky,  just as we set our table on the asphalt with a cloth and had bangrs andmash for tea with beer - great. The moon was just like a huge red ball and then in the morning we had brekkie on the park balcony sitting watching the sun rise. The dogs had the freedom to run as well -and then the drive - 250km through to Hughenden in the outback in central Qld.

Charters Towers

Magnificent Post office

City Hall

Standing inside the ornate entrance to the old city hall

Mt Alma hospital (original) now private house, beautiful lace work around the balconies

Left Fletcher Creek Fri am and drove only 40km into Charters Towers an old gold mining town which saw its wealth and population soar in the gold rush years of the late 1800's. Its wealth was based on the discovery of underground reef of gold in 1871.  At its height the pop. of Towers was 29,500 with 67 pubs and 29 crushing mills - the pop. today is 13,500 and of course most of the pubs have gone along with the mills but  the beautifully renovated heritage buildings remain and its a pretty country Aust. town . Have also a wonderful 600 theatre which has been completely overhauled and has the most amazing acoustics.

C.T stands on an interesting junction in the Aust. landscape.  Here the Gt. Dividing range is the headwatersof some ofthe country's biggest river systems.  Waterways originating here drain sth. west to Lake Eyre; north to theGulf or east along the Burdekin river system to the Gt. Barrier Reef. 

Home to the Gudjal and Gudjala tribes. It is on the Overlanders Trail running from Townsville to Tenant Creek in the N Territory.