Longreach, which lies in central Queensland, is steeped in history and heritage and yesterday, Wednesday the 5th of September, we began exploring the town.
Smack in the middle of the tropic of Capricorn, we know from here on we will be in the tropics. We were happy with that after nights of freezing temperatures in the desert.
Our first port of call was a stockman's comedy act which told the story of legendary outback rogue Harry Redford who rustled thousands of head of cattle from a Longreach station to Adelaide in the late 1800's and got away with it. He managed to achieve what Burke and Wills died trying to do in the name of exploration, only 10 years earlier.
It was a great show...
After lunch we then went on a horse drawn cart ride around Longrach, where we got to go back in time to see how the people of the era travelled...
...it was hot and dusty and made me feel like a princess for complaining about a red dusty caravan. The trip also told the story of Cobb & Co and took us past an age old billabong. It was a great history lesson for the kids.
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| The kids in front of an old Cobb & Co mail cart |
After lunch we then went on a horse drawn cart ride around Longrach, where we got to go back in time to see how the people of the era travelled...
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| Dressed for the era before our ride |
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| Richard & Harry in the horse drawn cart |
...it was hot and dusty and made me feel like a princess for complaining about a red dusty caravan. The trip also told the story of Cobb & Co and took us past an age old billabong. It was a great history lesson for the kids.
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| An age old billabong, they say Henry Lawson & Banjo Patterson both camped beside it |
We returned back to the caravan exhausted after a big day of history lessons.
We also learnt that all of the roads in Longreach are named after birds.
The north/south facing roads are named after land dwelling birds and the east/west facing roads are sea dwelling bird names.
The north/south facing roads are named after land dwelling birds and the east/west facing roads are sea dwelling bird names.
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| Street signs in Longreach are all named after birds |
Dinner was crumbed steak and salad before we all retired to bed early.
This morning, we were up bright and early and rode our pushbikes to the Stockman's Hall Of Fame. A tribute to Australia's Outback heroes both well known and unknown. It was a 4 story building of artefacts, photos, electronic displays , films and stories of bush life over the years. It certainly made me appreciate our Aussie pioneers and what my grandparents went through in their every day life... We have it so easy by comparison.
During our tour, the kids spotted Tanya Kernaghan with her Mum, looking at a section dedicated to her stockman Grandad. They asked Richard to take a photo of them. The kids were excited given that only a week or so ago they had lined up to get her autograph.
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| The Stockman's Hall Of Fame |
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| The kids on their bikes in front of the Stockman's Hall Of Fame |
The Hall of Fame was followed by an animal husbandry show, mixed with a bit of comedy, showing us how to control outback animals. It was lots of fun.
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| Riding bareback and playing the guitar, that's talent! |
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| Part of the show |
We walked out feeling very proud and grateful for what we have now & happily rode home on our pushbikes.
The afternoon was a quiet one, it reached about 32 degrees, bliss! It was a good opportunity to do some more washing, some grocery shopping and to sit outside over a quiet G & T and write the blog (I hope I am making sense) ... while I watched the boys cast their fishing rods into an esky... gold!
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| Jack & Harry practice their casting |
Richard and Jack are making dinner tonight, steak sandwiches... Yum!
Tomorrow, we head to the Qantas Founders Museum and the Longreach School of the Air.
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