We spent most of yesterday driving from the outskirts of Emerald to Longreach. There is more skill in that than you might think – got to dodge all the kangaroo carcasses spread all over the road! They are everywhere, along with quite a few bird of prey that were obviously feeding but didn’t make it out of the way in time. We got a really good, but brief, close up glimpse of a huge eagle. For a moment I thought the whole windscreen was going to be replaced with an eaglescreen (it was big enough to completely cover it!), but fortunately for it, and us, it made it out of the way just in time.
I had thought Emerald was a little dry, but it was a green oasis compared to the final kilometres coming into Longreach. I’d call it a dust bowl, but that might be slightly harsh and I’ll reserve that term for the campground we are spending tonight (will explain more later….). It wasn’t so dry most of the way in though. Barcaldine and Ilfracombe were a bit better. Barcaldine has that tree (tree of knowledge they call it) in relation to the shearers strike that lead to the Labour Party, which some big dollars have obviously been spent on (there is a huge fancy wooden structure surrounding a dead tree…). We also went out to an aboriginal botanical garden and did the walk. The boys weren’t very impressed at the start as it was just plain old scrub, but they actually ended up enjoying reading the tree names and what they were used for.
Emu walking the streets of Barcaldine. Saw a few wild ones in the bush too.
Ilfracombe has this cool line of old machinery and other stuff along the side of the highway. There is heaps of it! Here’s your truck George…
George’s truck
start of a long line of machinery
that keeps on going for hundreds of metres…
and more…
Old fuel bowsers!
and other stuff….
and junk….
On arrival into Longreach we headed over to the free camping area, as it was getting late. We found the turnoff and passed several paddocks with no camping signs. Finally we rounded the bend to be greeted by an unbelievable mass of motorhomes, caravans and vehicles, all jammed on this one football field sized patch of pure dust! There were well over 100 of them, so it didn’t take long for us to say ‘stuff that’, and headed off to find our own! 500m out of town in a different direction, we took a dirt road and a few hundred metres later we parked for a nice quiet and peaceful night.
Our camping spot Thurs night.
Bare dirt between the tufts of dead grass. This is a good looking ungrazed paddock too….
While driving we had debated whether Longreach was going to be bigger or smaller than Emerald (well Jonathan kept asking…). We were surprised at how big the difference was – Emerald is massive (Coles, Woolies, IGA, BigW, BCF, Hardly Normal, etc etc) compared to Longreach (a Foodworks for a supermarket)!
We started Fri by touring the Longreach School of Distance Education. Interesting to hear how they run it (don’t use HF radios anymore). Guide was nice and provided heaps of info – perhaps a little too bubbly and enthusiastic (I’ve never met anyone quite like her – some of the older blokes had trouble stomaching the drama and giggles….) – but better that then totally boring!
Then it was on to the Stockmans Hall of Fame, after some lunch. It is all very professional, and expensive! It covers everything from initial discovery of Australia, settlement, exploration etc though to current times and issues of the bush. The boys did well to stand and read the many displays, and there were some videos that they liked watching. They enjoyed it, but if they were any younger I think they’d have struggled at much of it. The thing they most liked was the bloke doing leather-work – making whips! It was quite interesting to watch him shape the leather and assemble some of it together. We haven’t completed the whole thing yet – still got a couple of sections to go, so we’ll be back there tomorrow morning to see them and to watch the Stockman Show. Also plan to visit the Qantas Founders Museum, though I think we’ll skip the jet plane tour; nowadays can actually go flying in one for only slightly more than the extra tour cost (and the boys have flown)!
There is not a lot else to do in Longreach it seems – no national parks or natural features to visit (except the river) – just a number of [somewhat expensive] tourist features. Still worth the visit though. Oh, and I lost the motorhomes water inlet filler cap today – forgot to put it back on after filling. Found replacement ones the web easily enough, but how to get one out here…. Bit of paper towel in a plastic bag will have to do for now!
Tonight we decided to head back to the dustbowl and see how we go for the night – perhaps whoever picked up the filler cap will recognise us and give it back (there were a couple there when we drove off). Hopefully there might be some campers less than double our age around too! Though it was close to dark when we arrived, so almost everyone was already inside for the night….