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Boulia to Longreach (July)
Leaving Boulia approximately 9.30 am quick call into the supermarket for a few supplies, one of those country stores you could spend hours in, sells everything, good job Clive didn’t come in with me we’d have still been there at lunchtime. Heading to Winton through what they call the Channel Country. Very dry and flat, but a lot of water courses running through (hence the name) and apparently a lot of underground water. Stopped at the ruins of the original Min Min hotel, read the signs but very little to see, the hotel was burned down late last century but the myth persists.
Lots of stock wandering around everywhere, but no min min lights, and nowhere to hide to take a pit stop. Approaching the Cawnpore Hills, very bizarre images as the tops of these hills float above the clouds, with a bit of greenery on them. Changing from Boulia to Winton shire the landscape changed dramatically, lots of American westerns type hills, flat mesas and very dry gullies etc. Stopping off at a lookout and gazing around one expects to see John Wayne or Clint Eastwood come riding over the hills chasing the Indians.
Driving along the sealed single track Clive starts muttering away about the guy in front who is driving so slowly, and he’s going to have to overtake mutter, mutter. As we get closer we find it is a guy with an old-fashioned camel drawn wagon. He had six camels pulling and two behind for interchange. We didn’t stop and speak to him but stopped a way ahead hopefully to get some good photos. It’s quite amazing what you encounter on these roads.
The mirages along this road are unreal, the hills seem to float, the trees seem to float very surreal, no wonder they have min min lights, don’t think they know the difference between a light and a mirage, mind you they do only see the light at night and it would be a bit hard to have a mirage in the dark!
Stopped at the Middleton pub in the middle of nowhere for lunch. It was really funny, there was a police van parked outside and as you sat there having a drink you could hear the small amount of traffic there was changing gears and slowing down when they saw the cop car, not that the police were worried they were off duty and having a few beers themselves. Then dropping the publican of the Urandangi pub, back home after a fishing expedition.
We arrived in Winton at approximately 3 pm and were at the end of the Outback Highway! They didn’t give us a sticker. I thought there would be bumper stickers like the ‘we crossed the Nullabor’ ones, but no. The Matilda caravan park was really nice the sites were a bit awkward to get into but quite spacious when you got there. The water here smells revolting, it all comes from artesian bores and is so hot they have put it through a cooling system, there are heat exchangers on the outskirts of the town which deal with all the water. It’s fine to drink but the smell when you have a shower is not pleasant. The park has a $10.00 roast each night with a ‘bush poet’ but on our first night we didn’t feel like being to sociable so we just went down for a drink and a mingle which was interesting, I would say that at least 50% of the people in the park were taking advantage of this facility. The owners also put on talks each morning about different aspects of the town and the Lark Quarry dinosaur site which is approximately 60 km. Away and apparently has some of the best fossilised dinosaur relics in existence. Unfortunately Lark Quarry is closed at the moment for renovations and upgrading which is very disappointing. Several people we spoke to had only come to Winton because they wanted to visit this site.
Winton is the ‘birthplace’ of Waltzing Matilda, and the whole town has embraced this legend and perpetuates it in every way. Story is that Banjo Paterson was visiting some friends nearby and was taken out on a picnic to a waterhole which inspired him to write the poem. It was first performed publicly in Winton in 1895 at one of the local hotels. The original hotel has been devastated by fire but the rebuilt version has photos all round and memorabilia of that occasion. They have the Waltzing Matilda interpretive centre which costs $15.00 to go round and incorporates the tourist centre, there is a ‘waterhole’ in the main street with sculptures depicting the original waterhole and swaggy, and a very beautiful statue of Banjo Paterson outside the Matilda centre. Winton welcomes the tourist, the locals, whether you are in their shops, or just sitting outside a café with a cup of coffee, they stop, they talk to you, they are friendly. One shop we went into was selling some lovely pen and ink drawings done by the owner but all the ones they had were either framed or block mounted, we loved the drawings but didn’t want to carry around frames etc. for the next month or so, we said this to the lady and her husband offered to go home and bring back some unframed ones for us to look at in the afternoon, we thought this gesture was very nice and when we went back chose two lovely drawings which were very reasonably priced. Deciding where to have dinner that night involved a pub crawl! During the course of the day we visited each of the pubs in the town and perused their menu, each of these pubs had so much to offer, one had a huge display of cowboy hats and stockman stuff all over the place, another the town history was displayed in photographs, maps and showcases and everywhere people were happy to chat and explain things to you. We opted to eat at Tattersalls Hotel on the main road and we weren’t disappointed. $18.50 for a bug platter for me and a prawn and bug platter for Clive. The plates were piled so high we were battling to get through it – no thought of dessert we were so full. Again everyone so friendly and chatty.
The main street has fairy lights strung all the way along and we were hoping these would be lit up after dark, no such luck as we found throughout Queensland, these type of decorations are only lit at Christmas!!
After Winton we are heading for Longreach approximately 200 km. Down the track. Whilst Longreach is the place that Qantas first flew from in Australia, Winton is where the company was conceived, for want of a better word, and the house where they held their board meetings is still standing and has a plaque outside. It is now the ‘Old Winton Club’. The Matilda interpretive centre also has the Qantilda Museum, a mixture of Qantas and Waltzing Matilda.
Filling the tank at the Caltex depot as we leave the price on the bowser is 89.5 c. but they give you and extra 5c. discount as a ‘thankyou’ for coming which is great, with the prices we had been paying the first price was great, but another 5 c. even better.
About 30km. Out of Longreach we cross over the Darr River which is full of water, we haven’t seen a river with so much water in since we left WA, and what is almost as exciting we have trees again – yes it has been a pretty flat, bare landscape from Winton.
Longreach is a large, typically Australian, country town. We visited the tourist bureau, and another visitor advised if we were going to Emerald to detour and stay in Rubyvale in the heart of the gem country, so we’ll bear that in mind. Did some shopping then went to book into the park. It was crowded! There has been a motor home rally in Barcaldine and everyone is now travelling to the four winds so part of the park was given over to these motor homes, apart from that the sites were small but adequate and the facilities were good. They also do a $10.00 pp dinner each night, but again we didn’t take advantage of it.
As soon as we were set up we left to go to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame. WOW! The architecture and the landscaping blew my mind let alone the interior. Absolutely fantastic, it cost $22.00 to go in, but you can get a pass out and come back the next day. It was great, perhaps not what I thought it was going to be, it is a tribute to all pioneer Australians past and present and their different lifestyles, they have displays, both static and moving, a library, and masses of information set out in many different ways. The centrepiece is a huge stained glass window depicting the drover and his horse and is beautiful. We spent several hours there, but were very tired so decided to call it a day, unfortunately our timetable wasn’t flexible enough to allow us to return the next day. We popped over the road to have a quick look at the Qantas hangar and museum which had just closed for the night, but we were able to see quite a bit through the windows. It only costs $12.00 to go into this centre and one couple we spoke to thought it was far better than the Stockman’s Hall, I can’t really comment but I will say that for me it would have had to have been exceptional to beat the Stockman’s Hall of Fame which I thought was wonderful.

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