We left Airlie Beach at 10.30am and headed south towards Mackay and then west, en route to Longreach. We had a big day – not only did we catch the boat from Daydream Island to Airlie Beach, we also drove 560kms, some of which was windy roads. We stopped at a small town called Sapphire, west of Emerald. We did a free camp tonight – love not having to pay for accommodation. Sapphire was a quirky sort of town that is in the middle of pastoral country and known for its gemstone fossicking. It reminded us a bit of a much tidier Coober Pedy. We had to laugh at a bottle shop that was on the main road, kilometres from anything else. It looked very out of place.
On Friday we continued to Longreach, which was another 400kms. We stopped at a few towns along the way. Our favourite was Barcaldine, 100kms east of Longreach. Barcaldine is a beautiful small town that was so neat and tidy. The people were very friendly and they had five operating pubs, which is quite amazing given the size of the town. Barcaldine is also home to the Tree of Knowledge, which is a big dead tree in the main street, surrounded by a huge wooden wind chime that commemorates the Labor movement.
In Longreach we stayed at another free camp (Apex Park), alongside the Thompson River, which is part of the Lake Eyre catchment. We really enjoyed this camping spot. Perfect location, nice people and it was free! We even had TV reception so Simon could watch the news on the 12 volt TV! We coped just fine without electricity for a couple of days. The best thing though was the amazing night sky - there is nothing better than looking at the clear night sky filled with countless stars.
Chloe and Ben were very impressed with the family of green frogs that lived in the cistern of one of the male toilets.
The highlight of our visit to Longreach was the Qantas (Queensland & Northern Territory Air Service) Museum. Whilst Qantas was founded in Winton, in the early stages they relocated their headquarters to Longreach where there was a railway service. Qantas is an amazing airline that was created by two world war one veterans, backed by a local pastoralist. It is the only commercial airline in the world that built and flew its own planes. There was so much history about the early days of this airline and the obstacles the founders encountered has to be admired.
We enjoyed a guided tour of a luxury Qantas 707 that had been donated to the museum. It had an interesting history, including being owned by an Arab Oil sheik (only after the pig skin seats were removed!), it had flown the Jackson Five on a number of occasions and even John Travolta had been on board.
It was a fantastic and modern museum that included displays in the original Qantas heritage listed hangar.
Simon visited the Stockman’s Hall of Fame which also had a lot of local history. It had great exhibits from the Royal Flying Doctor Service, pastoralists and legends of the Australian bush, from the aboriginal days to the present time.
Longreach is a tidy remote town, with a population of 2,500.
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