Day 21 to Day 25

Day 21 - Sunday August 10th - Longreach 2

Today in Longreach I visited the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame. This museum was huge and would have taken days to ready everything! I skimmed past some bits..

The museum is divided into sections. The first section was about the early days on the land which included aboriginal history, early explores & stockmen. It explained how the aboriginal assistance was essential in the early success of stockmen. There was also a section about the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It was a good museum, however due to the number of other museums I have seen recently, I was a little over looking at things and reading text.

Inside the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame

A highlight from here was their outback show. The performer, Lachie Cossor, was a third generation stockman and horse breeder. He demonstrated stockman techniques using his well trained horses and dogs. He was also an accomplished country music singer and song writer. I bought his CD as a souvenir.

Lachie sitting on his horse singing

Day 22 - Monday August 11th - Longreach 3

I was off to an early start today because the coach doesn't wait for anyone. I was booked on a 7.30 am Kinnon & Co. coach ride. The coach ride was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had prime position up top with the driver. Kinnon & Co. included a comical yet informative commentary. The ride was a return trip to the Longreach common following the original Royal Mail route.

Pre ride photo

The Longreach common is land owned by all local rate payers for their use, ride a horse, drive a car, etc. Back in the past farmers were allowed to graze their cattle on the common. However come branding time for the calves, it caused many arguments among the farmers. The council put an end to the grazing as a result.

Part way through the ride they took the horses up to a gallop from a trot. At that point dirt & stones started flicking up at us. I was told to keep my mouth shut, good advice! At the end I was completely covered in dirt and dust, I looked very authentic when I got off. It was a fun ride but would have been a horrible method of transport back in the day. It was very rough and slow compared to the modern day equivalents like a car.

My view from up top

The replica carriage I rode on

Talking to the Richard (the owner) and the guys after the ride, they highly recommended I come back for the tent show at 12 pm if I'm still in town.

I had breaky in town then headed over to the Longreach School of the Air for a tour. I remembered doing this tour in 1998 and at that time they used radios to communicate with the students. Now in modern 21st century they use telephones and internet. Some family have to connect using satellite services because ADSL or dialup isn't available. This Monday was the start of a mini school program for the year 1's. Mini school is when the students come into the school for a week and get to socialise with their peers while doing group activities. Normally the students work with their teacher's assistance remotely and a tutor at home. In most cases the tutor is a parent.

It was almost midday so I headed back to Kinnon & Co. for the tent show.  It was a brilliant comical show loosely based on some truth. I highly recommend this and the coach ride to anyone travelling to Longreach, if you're not travelling to Longreach, you should!...

Myself with Richard and his horse

I had lunch in town then headed off to Winton. Before pulling out of my car spot I had to give to a coach ride!

Coach ride in town

Day 23 - Tuesday August 12th - Winton 1

Waking up in Winton I had to be up and ready by 8 am for a bus ride to Lark Quarry. At Lark Quarry we were shown dinosaur footprints fossilised in mud. From the tracks and the types of rock, scientists have been able to work out that a large dinosaur snuck up behind a herd of smaller dinosaurs drinking at a lake. When the small dinosaurs realised they started running a chaotic stampede. Unfortunately the tracks aren't complete and they will never know if the big dinosaur got a small dinosaur. However I'd say it's pretty safe to assume that's what happened. These tracks were discovered back in the 1960's by people looking for opals.

This is me at Lark Quarry

Some of the footprints at Lark Quarry

In the afternoon I caught up over lunch with some people I had met earlier in Longreach. I then went into the Waltzing Matilda Centre. This place has a large amount of history about the song, plus many other period artefacts. Worth a visit if you're in town.

Another thing worth a mention is Arno's Wall. It's located behind the North Gregory Hotel and is made from concrete and objects, including the kitchen sink. Must be seen to be believed!

Arno's wall

While I was on the tour bus in the morning, I met Mary and Chee who are also driving around. In the evening we had dinner together at iconic North Gregory Hotel in town.

Day 24 - Wednesday August 13th - Winton 2

I spent the morning in Winton. I started with breaky at a local cafe where I was greeted with a handshake by the barista. Looking around at a few things in town I found the old cinema quite interesting.

Winton's Cinema

Old advertising slides - There were sound cheeky ads back then!

Old movie poster

I also headed over to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs, a not for profit organisation which has uncovered many dinosaur bones locally. They are very proud of two in particulate which have been named Banjo & Matilda. Banjo is the most complete dinosaur found in Australia. They also mentioned that the model built of his foot fits nicely within the large tracks left at Lark Quarry, meaning one of his species likely made those tracks.

Banjo statue outside the Australian Age of Dinosaurs

I then started the long drive to Cloncurry stopping along the way to give myself rest. At one of the rest stops just outside of town I spotted Mary and Chee (from the Lark Quarry tour), we chatted for a few minutes before I continued on.

Day 25 - Thursday August 14th - Mt Isa 1

Cloncurry had a museum, however at this point I'm a little over them, so I skipped it and had a look around town.  There were some impressive older buildings in town. I then continued on to Mt Isa.

Post Office Hotel in Cloncurry

At Mt Isa I booked on a mine tour and found a place to stay. To kill some time I visited the town lookout.

Isa lookout during the day

When it was time for the underground mine tour, we all met at the information centre located close to the mine. The mine used for the tour was purpose built for tourism. We went about 30 meters underground and got to see lots of older equipment actually used in the real Mt Isa mine. The tour finished up with beer and pizza in the crib room (miner speak for lunch room). We were also given copies of photos taken at the start of the tour, due to safety they don't allow people to take photos underground (it be easy enough to walk into something dangerous or trip if you're not paying enough attention).

The guide, Steve, was a volunteer who had previously worked in the Mt Isa mine and also volunteered his time to help build the tourist mine. He still works in another mine just out of town, donating some of his days off to Mt Isa's tourism program. It was a great tour and having Steve's experience made from some truthful yet funny stories.

Steve and myself

It was dark by the time we got out of the mine, so I then headed up to the town lookout (along with everyone else from the tour). The view of the mine is quite spectacular at night, everything is lit up and it is sad to look a bit like a ship because of the two tall chimneys. You'll have to take my word for it because I wasn't able to take a good photo with the low light.

I also got to see the evening blast. We could hear it at the lookout as well as see the dust clouds coming from the open cut pit. Backing up a bit, Mt Isa mine has an underground mine and an open cut mine. They have two major blasts each day at 8am and 8pm.