Barcaldine and Longreach

We woke up at dawn to the early morning birdsong, we sat up in bed and watched the rainbow lorrikeets just outside our window, then when they flew away we went back to sleep until 8.00. Then we got up! We drove on west, along very quiet roads through lovely scenery, eventually climbing up through the Drummond Ranges, where we stopped at the Lookout for morning tea. (This is an ideal overnight spot too, but it was still too early in the day for us).

Then we came to the town of Alpha (yes - Beta is a little further along the highway).
We stopped and got some tourist info at the little tourist centre and had an 'award winning' pie for lunch (Bairnsdale is still winning in the pie stakes). We filled up with fuel and the young man on the till delighted us with his accent, he was from just outside Cork in Ireland. He told us that he was in the little village where Michael's cousin lives just recently and that there's a good restaurant there now!!
Then it was on again, through Beta, through Jericho (on the Jordan River, just south of Lake Gallilee) and into Barcaldine,  home of the Tree of Knowledge.
A little bit of history on the Tree - in 1891 Queensland shearers and pastoralists were involved in a major dispute. Shearers argued that they should have the right to stipulate who worked in the shearing sheds and that all shearers worked according to union rules; employers argued to employ shearers on conditions to be negotiated. There was a strike and the workers gathered in town, on the main street  under the shade of a huge ghost gum to discuss the issue. For over a century this tree stood proud and was a symbol for unions around the country.
Then in 2006 some mindless, vindictive moron poisoned the tree. The dead tree remains and a huge memorial stands around it, it's size covering the area of shade the tree gave and inside the wood staves hanging down symbolise shears' clippers, it is really quite stunning when seen in reality either from afar as you drive down the highway or up close, standing underneath it.

We checked into another little caravan park and had a quiet night as there weren't any lorrikeets around. The next morning we continued west to Longreach. The country was sooo flat. For miles and miles all we could see was grassland and a few shrubs then just before Longreach trees started to appear. An amazing part of the trip was the number of birds of prey hovering over the roadkill - it was like an old western movie with buzzards circling - groups of 6 - 10.
As we got to the outskirts of Longreach we could see the Qantas kangaroo on a 747 tailfin, at the Qantas Founders Museum.
 As we turned down the main street we officially crossed the Tropic of Capricorn.

 The town had a nice feel to it and a couple of touristy things we fancied so we checked into the caravan park for 2 nights.
The caravan park is on the edge of town (but still walking distance - it is a small town) and our site is next to the back fence, over the fence is nothing - just scrub. That is something that Las Vegas and Longreach have in common, towns surrounded by nothing, the aerial views are incredible.
Those birds of prey are everywhere flying right over town, hovering over the main street - maybe that's why it's called Eagle Street?

We wanted to book a Qantas 747 tour - a VIP tour of the cockpit and then a 'Wingwalk' out along the wing - BUT - just our luck; this isn't available at the moment, they've had to close it because the nose wheel of the plane is sinking into the ground!! I'm thinking of renaming this blog "The Closed for Repair" blog. There was Victor Harbor, Ballarat and now Longreach - all places to put on the return list. There is a 707 tour but they're not sure if that will include a wing walk.
We'll see tomorrow, we didn't book anything we'll just go along to the museum and see what a general admission ticket gives you.

We also checked out how much a flight from here would be to fly down over Lake Eyre - it's a full day tour, stopping at Birdsville for lunch and is $1400 each so we won't be doing that.

We did however book a trip on a Cobb & Co coach. A "Gallop through the scrub", and that we did today - it was great fun!! Michael grabbed the seat up front next to the driver and had a ball. I went inside with the 'ladies, drunks and deadbeats'. It was great but when we galloped it got dirty and dusty!!

The dog standing on the wheel is Rusty - he's a pedigree Cattle Dog, there are Blue Heeler cattle dogs, Stumpy Tail cattle dogs and Calendar cattle dogs.
Rusty is a calendar dog - lift his tail and you can see his date!!

We also visited the Powerhouse Museum, which is vastly different to the Sydney Powerhouse Museum, this one is the old electric power station for the town and surrounding area. The museum left us cold (no pun) it was a huge shed with a collection of huge electric motors, some smaller rooms with old electrical appliances and outside some very rusty bits of machinery.
 Definitely not one of the better museums around, we've seen enough rusty machinery.

Tomorrow we'll try the Qantas museum and then head on to Winton - and that will be in the next installment, which will be when it will be.