Tales From the Trip - Longreach

For a town that is located in the middle of freakin' NOWHERE - I think my father would've called it West Bumf*ck - and has a population of around 4,000, Longreach was a surprisingly nice place to visit. There's no way in the world I'd live there as the flies would drive me insane within a week (honestly, Clive looked a baby from a Unicef commercial what with the flies constantly in the corners of his eyes) but it's worth exploring.

Longreach is located along the Tropic of Capricorn, so you know it's really friggin' hot. Its a lot of scrub land, which means it's very flat and pretty dull. Occasionally you'd see another traveller, or cows along the road - or on the road - but generally there was a whole lot of nothing in between towns. This also marked the first time I'd ever seen a tumbleweed. I have to admit that, growing up on the outskirts of Boston, I wasn't convinced tumbleweeds weren't some invention of Hollywood as a way to visualize desolation. But we saw them, and collided with several of them, along the Capricorn Highway. I, of course, felt compelled to point out each one and make a noise when one disappeared (barely) under the 4WD. Have I ever mentioned I'm easily amused?

Our first port of call was the QANTAS Founders Museum. I have an interest in aviation dating back to my Civil Air Patrol days, so this was a fun stop for me. It's easy to find as it has a Boeing 747 parked out front whose tail is visible throughout town. You tend to forget how big that aircraft is until you see it alone, then you wonder how the hell it gets off the ground. The museum wasn't terribly large - you can comfortably see it in half a day. The information on the 'hows' & 'whys' was well presented and easily digested - even the film they make you see when you first enter the museum is watchable. It also helps that you've just come in from blistering heat and you get to sit in a wonderfully air conditioned and fly-free theatrette. There are models of early planes and mock-ups of an early passenger compartment. If you haven't already, visit my pictures to see what I'm talking about.

After a visit to a WWII-era hanger we queued up for our tour of the 747. It was donated to the museum by QANTAS (there is no official affiliation between the airline and the museum) and flown into Longreach in 2002, a mere 7 days after its last commercial flight. This plane clocked some hours - 92,125 of them to be precise, or 10 years of continuous flight. It was a very interesting tour and very hands-on. You could touch anything you wanted, climb on the seats and flick open the ashtrays or kick the tires. It was cool, at least for me, to see the black box and learn why it's orange - not just higher visibility, but the colour orange burns last. All of the information during the tour was delivered in the typical Aussie 'tongue-in-cheek' style, which makes it fun. We had to pass on the wing walk as you had to be at least 12 and I don't think we could've passed Clive off as a pre-teen. We then had lunch in the cafe, which was surprisingly good, before calling it a day.

The next day was spent at the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame. This was more a history of rural and Outback Australia than just a place dedicated to stockmen and is full of those "Holy crap, how did they manage that?!" moments. This is especially true when you consider just how huge and desolate and totally unlike the UK - where most early settlers came from, whether you were a convict or not - Australia really is. This museum was one of the Hermit's favourite places on the whole trip. He kept insisting he should've been born 100 years ago and been a settler; I try not to remind him of his technology fixation and go with it. Sparky got a little bored here, but as it was also air conditioned and fly-free he didn't complain overly much. We had a quick lunch in the cafe, which unlike QANTAS was disappointing (there are plans to upgrade) and hit the gift shop where the Hermit got this very cool and very Australian hat. You can see the pictures from our visit here, if you haven't already.

There's a lot more to do in this Outback town. You can take a ride in a stagecoach, go for a cruise on the Thompson River, visit the School of Distance Education, formerly known as School of the Air (this was closed when we were there as it was school holidays) or explore the local pubs. I think we'll go back someday when Her Majesty and Clive are a bit older, because it's a place worthy of your time.