Longreach is located in what you would call the central west of Queensland. With a population of around 4000, it’s the major town in central Queensland. It’s also home to the Stockman Hall of Fame and most notably, it’s the town in which Qantas originally started business. That’s why Qantas have chosen to locate the Qantas Founders Museum there. Longreach also has a large cattle sale yard, and on that very point and as luck would have it, there was a huge cattle sale scheduled for the Wednesday we were in town. As a result we changed our itinerary (not that we have one - it’s as loose as an Amsterdam Sex Worker) so that we can go along.
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| Early Days - A QANTAS Outback Booking Office |
As TJ and I are from aviation backgrounds, our first port of call was, naturally, the Qantas Founders Museum. Obviously blessed with Board Level support - unlike the Townsville RAAF Museum which “enjoys” RAAF disdain as mentioned in an earlier blog - the Qantas Founders Museum is yet another place of worship for those possessed of blood type AViatrix RH positive. There are films hosted by the likes of Hudson Fysh (a Founding member), the daughter of Paul MacGuinness (an almost forgotten Founding member) and other films produced by those attempting to emulate the early exploits of both MacGuinness and Fysh in the years before the formation of Qantas. The information boards are filled with interesting anecdotal stuff, the likes of which you just don’t get elsewhere. There are even interviews with the legendary Nancy-Bird Walton - her insights and stories about the early days of flying are fabulous. To have worked directly with the greatest Australian aviation legend of all time Kingsford - Smith - imagine how that would look on your resume !! After reading this stuff, I felt like rushing out and building a replica Avro 504K, Fysh and MacGuinness's first aircraft. But then, that would be goodbye to a life for 5 years or more - and to someone very special.
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The DH86 - Lawrence Wackett proved this aircraft to
be unsafe when first introduced to Australia against
a barrage of British Aircraft Industry criticism. |
As an aviation tragic I was right at home. The other heroes of this story - Fergus McMaster and Arthur Baird - are also given due diligence in their respective contributions. McMaster through his vision for Qantas to become an international airline whilst the airline was only in it’s early years of operation. Baird, the Mechanical Engineering genius who graduated from the then Melbourne Institute of Technology with the highest marks on record to that date (later to become RMIT University - my old University, both as student and later as lecturer) was the technical brains in the back room who kept the early fragile flying machines in the air. The sad part about this history was the falling out between Fysh and MacGuinness - MacGuinness tried unsuccessfully to start up in WA but things didn’t work out. When you read between the lines, it was MacGuinness who had the vision for the initial concept of Qantas and it was the indefatigable McMaster who was the powerhouse in guiding the company through some fairly tough financial times during the early days. The combination of Fysh, Baird and McMaster was an all powerful team that created a now world famous airline.
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| The Buyers - Cattlepersons |
On the Wednesday we headed straight out to the cattle sale yards, about 5km from town. It probably doesn’t sound like much of an adventure, but it was really good. We managed to see the whole show from the perspective of the buyers, because we climbed through the fence and mingled with them. They didn’t even mind this bloke from the city sticking his camera in their faces every now and then. Very nice people, some interested in where we were from and quite happy to answer questions, no matter how dumb they may have been to them. Most are 3 axe handles across the shoulders and built to wrestle 400kg Brahman bulls to the ground. But a nicer bunch you couldn’t meet, unlike those Rodeo bastards that stole my 20 litre container full of fuel at Daly Waters - I’m still dark about that.
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| Sellers and Buyers |
Apparently, cattle prices were down on the last sale there two weeks before. The bidding is based on a per kg basis with most ranging between around $1.00 to perhaps $1.70, depending on breed, age and general condition. The stock sale guys stand on an elevated walkway system between pens and the buyers at ground level on the other side. There’s lots of shouting and waving of arms from the sales guy and his cohorts and before you know it, someone’s bought some cattle ... It’s an all new language to the uninitiated and it took a bit of working out before we understood what was going on - and who was actually bidding. The slightest nod from anyone brings excited shouting from those on high and you've got to keep a low profile otherwise you could become, unexpectedly, a cattle producer.
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400kg Brahman Bull - No match for some of the
Cattlemen in a Wrestling bout .... |
Most of the cattle were being bought for further fattening because of the low feed levels this year due to lack of good rains. Right now, most are doing it a bit tough, but they have had good yields the previous 4 years, so if the rains return to normal next year, the industry will be ok. If not, well that’s when people go to wall financially or worse, start committing suicide - yep that happens in these areas because you see the odd billboard advertising help for those who need it - and for help in preventing domestic violence, which is another symptom of bad financial times. Coming from the city, this isn’t something you spend time thinking about, but when you see what a drought does to the livestock, the land and the people, you start to get an appreciation for what these folks have to deal with at times.
And of course, we both got cowshit all over our boots, but that gives you a degree of authenticity - and smell, just like a real cattleperson - that's about 1 degree on a scale of 360.
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An Icon of the Outback - Sidney Kidman and Family.
Sidney Kidman had 50 million Square Acres of Land
at the peak of his Pastoralist career - an area greater
than England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland combined |
In the afternoon, we headed out to the reknowned Stockmans Hall of Fame and Pioneer Heritage Centre. We’d heard about this place and were keen to have a look. Well, having seen the Stockmans Camp at Camooweal in FNQ, the Stockmans Hall of Fame was a real disappointment to us. The Centre takes people through five aspects of the Outback; Beginnings, which is all about traditional land custodians; Discovery which highlights the major explorers; Pioneers which refers to some of the early Pastrolists; the Royal Flying Doctor Service: and finally - and almost as an aside - the role of the Stockman, most of which was more about rodeo riders than stockmen. Unlike the Drovers Camp at Camooweal, the Stockman’s Centre lacks anything genuine - even the timber “hut” which is meant to resemble an early settlers shack, is more a showcase to craftsmanship than to how a real shack would have been constructed and looked.
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| Stockman Hall of Fame Longreach |
There are information boards all over the place and one of the big criticisms we heard before we got there was that there was far too much reading. We originally thought this was just laziness on the part of those making the claim, but when we got there, we could not but agree. In short, again an opinion, it’s very over-rated, over-priced and wafer thin on anything substantial. In a word, it’s “slick” - something completely at odds with the real outback from my somewhat limited experience to date.
I think the Caravaner's Hall of Fame - Thargaminda (CHOFT) has more appeal .........
The next main stop was Charleville, which is midway between central and southern central Queensland. It’s not a big place but it’s tourist claim to fame is the Cosmos Centre and Observatory. Why this centre was located here is never explained but one would guess it’s due to Charleville being located way inland away from distracting light sources such as city lights and far enough removed from the effects of Industrial pollution. But there are many towns like this in these parts so there must be something else to it. Either way, they advertise Observatory views of the night skies and explorations of other things galactic. The word Observatory conjures up visions of a large dome housing a goodly sized powerful telescope made visible to the night sky by huge sliding doors rumbling over well worn tracks. That is not the modern way. Instead, you are provided with viewings through a compact but powerful telescope, either of the sun using special filters during daylight hours or night sky viewings, and believe me, the skies on a clear night are crystal clear, Milky Way and all. We chose the Astronomy By Day option which was ok.
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| The Charleville Races - Photo Finish |
Our visit to Charleville also happened to coincide with the Charleville Country Race Meeting so how could we possibly knock back this opportunity. Neither of us have ever been to the horse races, other than one visit to the trots when we both in our teens. So this was a must do - so we did. There were about 50 people all up - including the two Bookies and their staff and although we didn’t get to see the racing fixture, I think there was a total of 5 races and we saw three of them. There were only about 6 horses on average in each race and the only lady Jockey amongst the riders was the winner in two of the three races that we saw. No Black Caviar or Makiby Diva here, just locally bred horses, locally bred Jockeys and locally bred race-goers. The atmosphere was “real folksy” - everyone seemed to know everyone else - except us of course; we were the obvious ring-ins. But the locals were very chatty and couldn’t believe we hadn’t been to the races before this. The Bookies were running bets on not only the Charleville races, but also races in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne so money was changing hands everywhere. A great atmosphere. Would do it again in a heartbeat.
We were graced with the presence of two pet Emu’s Eddie and Elmo - my naming - strutting up and down the fenced off back paddock. Inquisitive, tough, aggressive - "whad-r-ya-lookin-at ?" and too ready to bite the hand that tries to feed them, as TJ found out ..... Eddie obviously has an attitude problem.
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| Cattle that have "Dog" bluffed |
We also watched cattle that have breakfast then casually jump the low part in the fence, wander across the road for greener pastures, come back for lunch, go back over the road again, then come home around dinner time - all true. This is, apparently, the established and accepted routine by all involved.Then there's “Dog” who patrols around the establishment barking, I suspect, to make it sound as though he’s actually doing something because rounding up stray cattle certainly isn’t his forte.
And finally we have “Farmer” - not quite sure what he does because a bloke in the “park” that visited this place 15 years before said nothing’s changed. But having said all that, I wouldn’t have missed this for quids.
The next stop will be Bourke about 140 km down the road. I am in no doubt the adventure will continue up until the day we arrive home.
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