(04) Longreach

Australian Stockmans Hall of Fame

And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,

And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.”

A.B. “Banjo” Patterson

At the Australian Stockmans Hall of Fame we started in the arena where stockmen on horses displayed their skills barrel racing and working sheep with the aid of some well trained kelpies (dogs) and a lot of whip cracking!

The museum (recently re-opened after a $15M refurbishment) itself is an exceptionally well curated museum with interactive as well as static displays which are designed to celebrate the ‘Unsung Heroes’ of the outback and included a large display celebrating the Royal Flying Doctor Service complete with the first plane, the Arvo. An audio tour is available which gave so much more insight into the stories and it was a well spent day.

Qantas Founders Museum

That evening we went to the Qantas Founders museum just after dark to se a spectacular light show, called “Luminescent Longreach “ which was projected onto the full sized Boeing 747.

Next day it was up early – and off to catch a plane! Well not really; we were again off to the QFM for a day having a tour through the Boeing 747, Boeing 707, Super Constellation and DC-3. All the planes have been donated to or purchased by the QFM which is a ‘not for profit’ organization and not part of Qantas. The air park is beside the aerodrome and museum and now has all the planes under a covered roof complex which protects them from sun and rain and means they can run tours 365 days per year. As part of our ticket we had a small group of 6 and a very experienced ex pilot volunteer and we were allowed to walk through all the planes and even do a walk out on the wing of the 747 and 707. As you can see from the photos we also got onto the flight deck of the 747 and even to stand inside the jet engine – apparently the only place in the world where you can legally do that. It was a very cold morning with a nasty wind chill.

We had booked ourselves in to a caravan park just out of town so we could do washing and clean up the van. There was a bad smell in the truck which just wasn’t going away, and in fact was getting worse. We decided one morning there was nothing for it but to empty the truck cab and find where this rotten fruit smell was coming from. Finally 2 hours later, after having removed all the dash board covers, air filters and all the paraphernalia you keep when you’re travelling, we found the smell. John had removed the glove box and while putting everything back in place happened to sniff the offending glove box. It was putrid. And hereby hangs the ‘tail’ of those pesky critters from Carnarvon Gorge – we found the ‘mus mortuus est’ (dead mouse). He had climbed up through the engine and somehow got in to the glove box and inside a plastic pocket in there and died! He was dispatched without ceremony into the big red rubbish bin!