Ilfracombe (27kms from Longreach)

This friendly little caravan park is our preferred spot to stay when in Longreach. Adjacent to the most congenial Wellshot Hotel, you’ll be well entertained by the folks in the pub and the park. Across the road is the locally collected and curated Machinery Mile. If that’s not enough there’s a hot spring up the road beyond the pub and behind the caravan park an original moveable kit house, the Langenbaker House. These houses were used and moved by railway construction workers as the line slowly progressed westwards across the state. It’s no wonder that Queenslanders like moving their houses and pubs, it seems that they’ve had 200 years to refine the art.

Longreach

Longreach is a must for the grand tours, The Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame and the outstanding Qantas Founders Museum. We spent a morning at the Hall of Fame and there was so much to see, though I reckon we could have shaved an hour off if Double or Nuthin’ hadn’t read every single plaque in the place. “Hmm what’s this one? Oh toilet.”

‘The Spirit of Australia’ could not be a more apt slogan to describe Qantas. Once again, a most unlikely business created by people who were game to give it a go. The airline was initially started to link the towns of Charleville, Longreach, Winton and Cloncurry. Each of these towns were linked to the coast by a railway but not to each other and the north south unmade roads were impassable in the wet season. It doesn’t take much rain to turn the dirt up here into mud coloured glue. We spent five hours at Qantas Founders Museum sitting in seriously old planes and crawling all over a 747 and finding out what is behind those synthetic panels.

And while you’re here, Longreach is a perfect chance to stock up the fridge as they have an excellent Cornett’s IGA. By now you’ll probably swoon at the sight of fresh vegetables.

Winton

Winton is hot and dusty, brolgas wander the streets and there seem to be more pubs than any town would need, but Winton gets under your skin. There is something about this town that makes you want to return. Is it the dinosaur rubbish bins, or all those friendly pubs? Hang on, maybe it’s because the brolgas dance in the streets. The rather grand North Gregory Hotel was where Waltzing Matilda was first performed and where future U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson stayed after his USAF plane crashed near here during World War Two.

Not only is this Waltzing Matilda country but the strange black soil here seems to be constantly pushing up dinosaur bones, lots of ‘em. Only a few minutes out of town is the fascinating Australian Age of Dinosaurs founded by David Elliott where you can learn about the ‘dinosaur triangle’ as well as watch bones being painstakingly extricated from rock. The industry that has been nurtured by David Elliott is almost as fascinating as the dinosaurs themselves.

Further out of town is the Lark Quarry dinosaur site, of which I can’t tell you about as we didn’t get there. The road was pretty bad at the time, but we did have a race with a mad emu. The emu won.

This area is also rich in boulder opals and retired opal miner Arno built a wall around his property from rock and mining junk. In fact, it has everything including a kitchen sink.

I dare you to have a drink in every pub and don’t forget to see the house where Qantas was founded and visit the Waltzing Matilda Centre and the musical fence.