Well we’ve completed our visit to Longreach, and I type this sitting beside a campfire, having eaten BBQ’d steak egg and sausage sandwiches for dinner, followed by fire roasted marshmellows, with a full moon rising over the horizon, at a nice free area just out of Winton 🙂

Earlier on…

We spent quite a long time at three major tourist attractions at Longreach (spread over 3 days) – the Longreach School of Distance Education, the Stockmans Hall of Fame, and the Qantas Founders Museum. I wrote about the the first, and part of the second in my last post ‘A Day in Longreach‘.

We spent the majority of Saturday at the Stockmans Hall of Fame, taking it to a good full day’s or more visit (spread over two)! The Royal Flying Doctors Service hall was interesting (Nicoles favourite), and we also watched the Stockmans Show, which was pretty well done. All in all it was a good worthwhile experience, and I’m sure we all learnt lots.

Daniel in RFDS cockpit

Stockman show

Stockman’s Hall of Fame

It was late in the arvo when we headed over the Qantas Founders Museum – we had about an hr before they closed. The tickets for both these places last for a couple of days, so you don’t have to rush it. As the name suggests, it is primarily about the founding people of Qantas. One thing I didn’t realise is that in the early days Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services) actually built a number of there own planes (under license)! Also what stood out is how all big businesses once start as small dynamic companies driven by a few daring and enthusiastic people, before eventually growing and becoming lumbering corporate structures – such as Qantas today. It was an interesting museum to visit, with the original hanger they built planes in still there. There isn’t as much content as at the Stockmans Hall of Fame (it starts to repeat itself in places), so 3-4 hours covers it well (though we didn’t do the jet tours).

A plane in the original Qantas hanger

One of the earlier passenger compartments. Right behind the engine!

I went for a cool 10km run this morning. Not just because of the temperature at 8am, but I headed out down a dirt track/road, and along the way an eagle joined me for a minute or so. It was over 1m wingspan, just a few metres off the ground, and went back and forth from the paddock on one side of the track, to the other, just 5m or so in front of me (as I was running). That was pretty awesome! Contrary to Nicole’s thoughts – that perhaps it thought I looked like I was about to cark it – I suspect it was hoping I would scare some rodents out for it to grab??

Tomorrow we are off to see scientists at work on the remains of dinosaurs. The campfire is burning itself down to just some hot embers, and I’m starting to feel cool in just shorts and shirt, so I think it is time to say goodnight!