Day 18 to Day 20

Day 18 - Thursday August 7th

Exploring Charleville in the morning I took a walk by the Warrego River. The drought was evident by the gum tress with large trunks and small amount of branches, they had dropped quite a number of limbs.

Half a gum tree

Another interesting place in Charleville is their rain making guns. That's right, guns that produce rain, well that was the theory anyway. The science behind the guns is that they were designed to disperse destructive hailstorms and make it rain by shooting gas into the air (it worked for this purpose). Desperate times call for desperate measures, so the guns were trialled to end a drought. The drought ended naturally and most of the guns were pulled apart for scrap metal.

Steiger Vortex rain making guns

I followed the main road north into Blackall. Blackall is the site of the Black Stump, which was a key surveying point while marking out many towns in Queensland. The phrase 'beyond the black stump' refers to anything west of Blackall. The location of the monument isn't actually where the black stump was, it's been conveniently relocated for tourism. I remember visiting this site as a kid in 1998. I actually understand the significance of the site this time.

Mural of the black stump, with a petrified stump below to symbolise the black stump

I continued the drive on to Barcaldine with no knowledge of what this town was before arriving. Barcaldine is the place of birth for the Australian Labour Party. There is a special monument to signify this called the tree of knowledge. Later I found out that this tree was living up until a few years earlier, it was poisoned by an anonymous person. The Labour party was formed to help improve conditions for the working class man.

In the caravan park overnight I chatted to two guys who were excited to hear about my time at the Cosmos Observatory. We talked about our galaxy and the wonderful planet we call Earth.


Day 19 - Friday August 8th

I had morning tea at the bakery in town. It was a fantastic fresh muffin and a nice strong coffee. I then explored the town and checked out their old historic buildings. One building in particular that was of interest to me appeared to have a grand amount of woodwork on the facade, however it was all just an illusion of clever paint work! The building was moved to it's current location and is over 100 years old. It'd be quite warm inside due to the corrugated iron walls, they should plant more trees around it!

I was told the Australian Workers Heritage Centre was a must see, so I headed there next. I ended up spending at least 4 hours walking around, there is plenty to see. It has been built on the site of an old school, making use of the existing buildings with some extras as well. On display it had many sections donated by various government departments including; police, fire & rescue, hospital, school, rail with my favourite section being donated by Australia Post.

The post section covered mail (as we know it now) plus telegrams, telephones and Cobb & Co (they were the early mail couriers between post offices). On display was a scaled coach built by the original Cobb & Co. coach builder. This small coach was designed to be pulled by a goat. They had pictures of people awkwardly sitting on it being pulled by a goat.

Scaled down Cobb & Co. coach

The Barcaldine tourist broacher mentioned a lovely nature park by the Lloyd Jones Weir. It was just out of town so I headed there for a quick look. Getting there was the first road I've travelled on which only has a single sealed lane and the last 2 kilometres was sand. I survived the sand at low speed both in and out. (Back in 1998 we travelled on a large amount of roads with a single sealed lane, from what I've seen recently these major highways have been converted into safer dual lane roads.)

Arriving at the weir it turned out to also be a free camp site, there were many nomads with caravans onsite enjoying the views. Very quickly someone approached me and wanted to show me some birds they had spotted. Pretty soon there were 4 of us bird watching with a binoculars and a bird book. I've never done that before! Apparently later in the afternoon turtles would emerge on the banks of the river, while tempted to stay I wanted to get on the road before dusk.

I finished up my day with a short drive to Longreach and headed in to the Woolshed bar run by the caravan park I was staying at. We were entertained by a country music singer with his guitar. I enjoyed his stories and music then stayed around chatting to a couple who were sitting on the same table. The place also served dinner, so I decided to be lazy, after all it is a Friday night!

Entertainment in the Woolshed

Day 20 - Saturday August 9th

After discovering I had left some of my tent pegs in Barcaldine (didn't matter they were getting pretty bent anyway), I purchased more down at the bustling Longreach shops on Saturday morning. I didn't fit in, I was wearing shorts. The locals were wearing jumpers and pants!

I spent my day over at the Qantas Founders Museum. Here it explains the begging of the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services (or Qantas as we know it today). Qantas all stated in the day of two choices, horse drawn Cobb & Co. coach or rail. Out in the west, rail transport on runs East / West with the only North / South lines being on the coast. Although the train trip was far more comfortable than a coach, it took longer due to the huge amount of extra distance travelled. Qantas provided the fastest service, at a higher price of course.

Full size model of the first Qantas plan - an Avro 504K

To drum up business, Qantas started off by running joy flights and custom charters. One story was of a wealthy man who hired Qantas to fly over all the farms of young eligible ladies so he could drop them boxes of chocolates. Qantas also got themselves respected in the west by transporting critically sick or injured patients to hospital. Later the Flying Doctor Service was founded to take care of the medical side (it only became the Royal Flying Doctor Service after a visit from the Queen).

By far I found the most exciting part of the Qantas Founders Museum was their jet plane tour. The guide was also fantastic which made the tour even more special. Qantas donated a Boeing 747 to the museum. It was a big day in town when this landed in 2002 to mark Qantas' 82^nd birthday. Longreach airport wasn't built for a jumbo jet, being half the width and length normally used to land these planes. The pilots practised the landing in a simulator before attempting it. The planes weight was also drastically reduced.

On the tour we were shown around and in the 747 as well as a 707. The 707 was Qantas' first jet plan, purchased to propel Qantas as an international airline. The 707 was sold on a couple of times through its working life as a private jet. A Saudi prince was the last owner before the plane was sent to a grave yard. After 6 years the museum was altered to the plane's existence, and they purchased it for £1. Many months of volunteer restoration work (mostly by Qantas engineers who originally worked on this exact plane) got it air worthy again and then finally flow home to Australia.

I could write pages more about Qantas, but I wont. You'll just have to visit the museum for yourself! Did I mention, it's close to an airport.

Qantas 747 - City of Bunbury

Inside a 747 Rolls-Royce jet engine

I will spend another day and a half in Longreach, more to come in the next post.