Introduction to today's journey
In the heart of the Queensland Outback, Longreach is a town with a history as expansive as the surrounding plains. Located on a rise above the extent of any floodwaters, the town was named after the 'long reach' of the nearby Thomson River. The town became an early pioneer of Australia's aviation industry with the founding of QANTAS Airways in 1920. Longreach supports the surrounding wool and cattle industries spanning over a century upon enormous farm blocks of tens of thousands of hectares each to provide adequate grazing in this arid landscape.
Today's journey heads south of Longreach to explore part of the vast Rosebank Station before returning to town and going through the QANTAS museum. We head to the nearby Thomson River for a sunset cruise and a country and western performance.
Today's Journey
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I explore the town centre during dawn. Beside the local council building is this marker of the Tropic of Capricorn. The tropics is to the right of this sign. Here the sun is vertically overhead during the summer solstice. Nearby are two trees planted by Queen Elizabeth in the early 1970s when she visited. A new plaque has been added there following her death a few weeks ago. |
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From the town of Longreach, we quickly head out into the vast flat land, lush from having recieved uncharacteristically abundant rain over the past year. |
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Heading southward about 12 kilometres out of town, we arrive at the 11,000 acre Rosebank Station (as small as farms get around here). We stop at the historic homestead for morning tea and explore the recently renovated rooms restored to its original historic charm. |
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The homestead retains its historical charm here in the remote outback. From the homestead, we explore part of the farm where the land is completely flat in all directions as far as the eye can see. We do enter some patches of scrubby bush and pass a large dam recently replenished from all of this year's rainfall. The grass is green which is quite rare out here this far inland. Usually it is very parched for years (up to decades) at a time. |
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Returning to Longreach we head to the QANTAS museum set inside the original hangar for the first planes to run the Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service and also in a newly constructed museum, showing the history of flight here in the remote outback. This is one of the original planes on display in a hot hangar which was built back in the early 1900s. |
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We head to a large covered area sheltering several retired planes including a Boeing 747 which has been partially stripped away in the interior exposing a lot of its old mechanisms. We explore the entire length of the plane up to here in the large cockpit. |
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One of the older planes under the shelter. There were several passenger planes here previously owned by QANTAS, one of which had been since decked out as a private luxury jet. |
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One of the oldest passenger planes restored in the hangar. There was little space or comfort in what would have been a precarious trip. |
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From the museum, we return to Longreach for the afternoon before heading out to the nearby Thomson River to cruise along the largest of 14 permanent waterholes linking the river during dry spells. It only flows during flooding. |
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We set off on a cruise boat heading along the river making the occasional stop in amongst the coolibah trees growing on the banks. |
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We watch the dramatic sunset and dusk as we return to the wharf. The sunsets out here in the outback are very colourful due to the dust from the deserts over the middle of the country.
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Going up the riverbank we settle for an outdoor dinner whilst entertained by one of the local country and western singers. |
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