Thursday 17th July
Longreach is a town that we have always had in our minds as a real outback town and were to some extent disappointed as it has a really quite modern feel about it. It is really a tourist town, everything is geared to Qantas, The Stockman’s Hall of Fame and dinosaurs.
So, in order of visiting – the Stockman’s Hall of Fame; this is a very modern building c1987 (below left), which houses an very extensive history of the region, in pictures, words, videos, models,real objects etc. It is all very well done and is exceptionally informative but there is a lot of repetition and you find yourself reading the same thing several times in different sections and relating to different exhibits – possibly due to the fact everything is closely interrelated. Nevertheless, well worth the visit.
Next, the Qantas Founders Museum; Longreach should actually have its tongue in its cheek because Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service) was actually conceived and was given birth to, in Winton, a couple of hundred ks up the road. Longreach became the servicing base for Qantas aircraft in the mid’ 20th century and assumed importance as the fledgling airline expanded. As tourism made being the birthplace of Qantas more lucrative, Longreach capitilised on its position and today is often misquoted as the birthplace of the national carrier. One interesting snippet from the museum, is that Qantas has never operated without a government subsidy!
Parking is a problem when competing with 747s!
Below left is a replica of the one of the original aircraft operated by Qantas and a DC3 which was part of the fleet.
A company in town operates tours in a horse drawn coach which emulates the famous Cobb & Co service that served vast tracts of eastern Australia before the coming of the railways. The main theme of these coach tours seems to be speed and sadly last week they rolled one on a bridge just outside of town, several people we injured and I think the coach was a write-off! They certainly travel fast, even down the high street, and had just about disappeared by the time I had my camera ready! The dog is not real. Needless to say we didn’t book a seat.
On the way out of town we dropped in at the School of the Air, which supplies educational services to children on remote stations. It was closed but we were able to look at the results of some of the students’ projects from these stations. We thought the echidna (hedgehog) was pretty good (the spines are made of horseshoes). Booree is the name of the station.
Back in Ilfracombe, we spent some time looking at Machinery Mile (km?), which is a display of old machinery, including the tractor below and a whole series of graders of various sizes and vintage.
Friday 18th July
Leaving Ilfracombe we head back towards Longreach on our way to Winton (200ish ks). The landscape is very much open grass land although the grass is pretty much burned up, some 60% of QLD is currently drought declared.
On approach to Winton is the Australian Age of Dinasaurs. This area is the source of a huge number of dinosaur bones and fossils and this Centre has been set up to recover, clean and display the finds. The Centre is set on the top of a ‘jump up’, which is a flat-topped hill or series of hills. The building is well designed and fits well into the landscape. The Centre was the brainchild of David Elliot, the farmer who found the first remains on his property and wasn’t happy with the initial interest from the QLD universities and government.
The dinosaur outside is a full-sized replica of Banjo whose remains feature largely in the display in side.
We took a tour through the ‘laboratory’ where the cleaning up is done. When remains are found they are wrapped in a plaster cast to protect them through the storage period. They have several years backlog of work and know that there are at least 65 more sites with considerable numbers of bones just lying about in the soil. The plaster casts are stored on racks ready to be worked on. The Centre relies on volunteers who pay to learn how to carefully remove the old mud from the fossilised bone. Then they can come back at any time to do the painstaking work. They sit with what looks like and sounds like a dentist’s drill and it takes days to clean the smallest area to reveal what’s underneath. Some people apparently come back year after year.
After the ‘lab’ we went to the display area where the cleaned bones are on show. The bits above left are of Matilda a sauropod. This one was estimated to be 20 metres long and about 4 metres high, a vegetarian! The other is Banjo .
This is a very interesting exhibition centre with excellent guides who are enthusiastic about the work there. Now there is a plan to extend it to cover all Australia in terms of the dinosaur and fossil timeline.
We have spent some time here and we need to find somewhere to camp tonight and WikiCamps suggests that Long Lagoon is a suitable free camping area to the south of Winton. It doesn’t take us too long to get there and although most of the best sites are taken it doesn’t matter as we only intend overnighting, so, just about anywhere will do. It is a very large open space with a man-made lagoon. A levee goes round it and there are campsites most of the way round. The sun is setting but we go for a walk round, some kids have got a nice fire going over the other side, we think they’re here to use the dedicated motor bike trail.
Saturday 19th July
In the morning the wind is quite strong and the dust is swirling across the camp site but we didn’t take the vehicles off the vans so we haven’t got much to do before setting off.
We’re going into Winton to have a look at a few of the sights before heading off to Hughendon. One of the sights is Arno’s wall, where this bloke has built a wall round his property and just concreted anything and everything into it as he goes along!
Peter and Loraine spend an hour or so in the Matilda Museum (this is a museum based on the song Waltzin’ Matilda), whilst Pat and I have a coffee and attack the Times cryptic.
Of course, the even the dustbins are dinosaur oriented…………………
We do like to try and support these outback towns but $16 for two courgettes and two leaks is difficult get supportive about!
Then it’s off to Hughendon, the first half of the morning is pretty much into wind, which doesn’t do too much for the fuel consumption but after lunch the wind drops off and the average fuel consumption starts to drop back and we roll into Hughendon in late afternoon. There are virtually no free or bush camps around this area and we have little choice for camping this evening so we end up on a small park that takes 6 caravans parked very close together – no room for the awning tonight. Pre-dinner drinks are taken on the grass area (designated for unpowered camping) that was empty.
Sunday 20th July
We’re in no rush this morning, it’s only 260 ks to Charters Towers, so we take the opportunity of seeing the sights of Hughendon, namely a dinosaur (what else in this area!), a windmill, town sign, a memorial made from two windmills (some of the largest 10.7m in diameter) and another dinosaur sculpture (a pterosaur of course!).
Initially the scenery is pretty well treed but soon changes to the flat plains but in the distance we can see the seemingly ubiquitous Great Dividing Range.
We get to Charters Towers soon after lunch and get our camp set up, I try to get the troopie in for a service but they can’t do it ’til Wednesday when we’ll be in Townsville, so I’ll get it done there. Time then for a read and a cup of tea before doing a bit of work on the caravan. I had bought a small filter and the necessary fittings for the diesel pipe in Longreach and now have the chance to do the modification. It means cutting into the diesel line and inserting the filter and connecting tubes. Anyway it works when I test run the heater, so that’s OK.
Monday 21st July
Charters Towers was founded on a gold rush in around 1878 and, as with ‘gold towns’ all over Australia grew rapidly into thriving and quite wealthy communities, usually declining equally as quickly. Charters Towers has, to some extent, survived the decline and has managed to maintain it’s life blood. There is still mining in the area, supplemented by cattle and sheep farming. The relative prosperity has enabled it to maintain some of the early 20th century buildings, including the arcade, Post Office and the Town Hall. The Police Station has been restored and is a good looking building. In the middle below are some very good murals painted by a local artist and depicting the layout of the town in its heyday.
There is a lookout above the town which provides great views back over the town and the surrounding plains. The lookout is situated on top of the hill where the first gold was discovered and the first mine established. The mine used gravity to feed the ore through the roasting furnace and had a 200′ high chimney, 5 metres in diameter and a metre thick, built of bricks, quite a feat when when you consider where they built it. The gold was originally leached using chlorine then later the more efficient cyanide process was used.
Another place we wanted to see was the Venus Battery, which was used for breaking up the gold bearing ore before processing, unfortunately we got there too late for the last tour.
Tuesday 22nd July
An even shorter run into Townsville today, only 130 ks and a bit of excitement for us as Townsville again is a sort of iconic north QLD town for us and it will be the furthest north we’ve been on the east coast. Also, it’s our first experience of Tropical Australia, so we’re quite looking forward to getting there. The GDR provides a dramatic landscape on approach to Townsville and everywhere is green. About 50 ks out of Townsville we crossed the Burdekin River, which runs southish into an area region after the river. Apparently the river provides vast quantities of water to the region and there is an enormous aquifer only 10 metres down, making the area one of the most well provided with water in Australia. Due to the water they claim to grow the sweetest sugar cane in Australia!
The first thing we encounter are the inevitable roadworks in a growing area just to the south of Townsville but fortunately the signage is good and we find our way to the site by lunch time.
As soon as we get out of the car you can feel the warmth and the humidity, which, since it is winter time, isn’t very high. We want to get into town and have a look round after lunch and The Strand and Castle Hill have been recommended.
Having parked the car and got out we can hear running water and just behind us is a waterfall! Having spent the last couple of weeks in drought declared central QLD………………………!
The Strand is a wide sealed path which runs for about 6 ks along the beach amongst the palm and other (yet to be identified) trees. On the town side of the path are children’s playgrounds and on the sea side a selection of cafes which provide views of Magnetic Island, 20 minutes away by ferry. A variety of sculptures are also positioned along the walk.
Now, Lizzie, Ellie, James and Matthew, have a look at the next picture, why do you think that bottles of vinegar would be available on the beach? No, it’s not for people eating their fish and chips by the seaside!
Moreton Bay fig trees are prominent along the path, this one outside a restaurant was really quite impressive.
At 286 metres, the pink granite monolith of Castle Hill dominates the town and is our next point of interest.
We are taken aback by the number of people walking, running and cycling up the hill which rises the 286 metres in 2.9 ks. Apparently 1000+ locals can be seen going up here every day, maybe not the same people everyday, either way it is certainly is an achievement. The people of Townsville must be some of the fittest in the country!
The views from the top are, to say the least, spectacular!
Above left, the view to the south east, above right Magnetic Island, below left to the north and below right, to the west.
Below left some fit people and two who drove up …………………………..!
Wednesday 23rd July
Had a bit of a walk round Townsville this morning before taking the troopie in for a service. This pool (Rockpool) is normally full of water and is probably pretty speccy but today it was emptied for cleaning!
At the top end of the Strand, which we walked along yesterday, is Kissing Point, a late 19th century gun emplacement and defensive works on top of a promontory, which has been turned into a memorial park for Australian Defence Forces. It is very well done and includes the original guns (upgraded from muzzle loaders to breech loaders) and a map of the Battle of the Coral Sea.
So having collected the car and stocked up for the next part of the trip (last Woollies or Coles a few weeks) and returned to camp, the sun was over the yard arm and it was time for ‘jollies’.
Alloveroz 