Longreach (wikipedia) is a town in Central West Queensland, Australia approximately 700 kilometres (430 mi) from the coast, west of Rockhampton. The town is named after the “long reach” of the Thomson River on which it is situated. The town was gazetted in 1887, and the railway reached the town in 1892, causing the population to grow. It is the administrative centre of the Longreach Regional Council, which was established in 2008 as a merger of the former Longreach, Ilfracombe, and Isisford shires. The town is on the Tropic of Capricorn and has a population of 4 344 (by 2010 census). The main industries of the area are cattle, sheep, and, more recently, tourism. The town is home to the Australian Agricultural College’s Longreach Campus, which prepares students for work in the agricultural and pastoral industries. It was known previously as the Longreach Pastoral College. The campus was opened in 1967. Adjacent to the college is the Longreach School of Distance Education, which provides lessons to remote students, formerly by HF radio. The world’s second oldest airline, Qantas, commenced operating in Longreach – from this hangar – now part of the Qantas Founders Museum. A number of Queensland towns have their streets named to a theme. In Longreach, the streets are named after species of birds, with the streets running east-west named after water birds and those running north-south after land birds. The main business street is called Eagle Street. Other streets honour Hudson Fysh, an Australian aviation pioneer, and Sir James Walker, a farmer and long-serving mayor of the former Longreach Shire Council. In early April 2010, Longreach experienced a significant locust plague described by local residents as the worst in three decades. All of the Qantas Boeing 747-400‘s have “Longreach” printed on both sides of the first jetway entry/exit doors. Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach Longreach is also the home of the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, which was officially opened in 1988 by Queen Elizabeth II. The purpose of the centre is to showcase the history and the culture of life in rural Australia. Since its opening, over 1 million people have passed through its doors. Longreach was one of the founding centres for Qantas, the Australian domestic and international airline. One of the airline’s original hangars remains in use at the Longreach Airport and is listed on the Australian National Heritage List. The town is now the home of the Qantas Founders Outback Museum, which includes amongst its displays a decommissioned Qantas Boeing 747-200 aircraft, registration VH-EBQ, “The City of Bunbury.” and QANTAS’s first jet aircraft VH-XBA (formerly VH-EBA), a Boeing 707, “The City of Canberra.”. 10^th August, Sunday We were a bit late leaving Winton this morning as we didn’t have far to go to Longreach and as we were leaving everyone came out to chat so it took us ages, which didn’t really matter. The drive again is across golden plains, not many trees, very few in fact and it made me think of the poem by Dorothea Mackellar, this is the second verse and it explains this place so beautifully and is so apt. I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror – The wide brown land for me! By Dorothea Mackellar The caravan park we are in is huge.  There is no grass, very few trees and it’s very sandy (Can’t expect lush green lawns in the middle of the outback) They haven’t had a good rain here for 3 years and a lot of the stations have had to sell off their cattle and only keep their breeding stock, it’s very hard for them at the moment and that’s why they have farmers across the borders at the mo and they bring hay into these areas, they are really doing it hard.  The facilities are very good and it is close to the Qantas Museum which we will visit while we are here. Qantas started in Longreach, so the museum should be interesting.  We will also visit the Stockmans hall of fame which is supposed to be really good as well, I’ll let you know.  They have a country singer here at the mo and it’s just a donation for 1 ½ hour show plus he has CD’s for sale.  Not bad entertainment and good value.  The guy we saw has been here for a few days and tomorrow is his last day.  His name is Graham Rodger and he is a singer/songwriter and has won a golden guitar award in Tamworth.  He is very good and we so enjoyed the show and even bought one of his CD’s.  We had dinner there, it’s on the camp grounds so drinking and no driving :-). Tonight was pizza and pasta night.  So, the bellies are full and I didn’t need to cook so we will say goodnight. Love and miss you all xxxxxxxxxx

11^th August (Monday), 12^th August (Tuesday) We did the Qantas tour, Ralphie went on Monday and I went today. We have to do it in shifts because of Hugo.  The Qantas museum is very well run and privately owned and funded. The tour takes you through the Boeing 747 and teaches you a lot about how safe the planes really are and all the workings (I am petrified of flying and it made me feel a little safer learning about all the technical stuff and all their backup systems). The black box is actually not black, it’s orange, because the Ozzie guy that designed the technology couldn’t explain the workings of it when the technology was being sold as they didn’t understand his accent, so he just referred to it as the black box and the name stuck.  The smaller plane (Boeing 707) was sold on as a private plane and refitted to real luxury quality.  The taps and a lot of the fittings were solid gold and it was done to sell the plane to the Arabs but they wouldn’t even walk into the plane because someone had not done their homework as all the seats were lined in pig skin. It has a bedroom with ensuite, lounges, cocktail bars, (and the Muslims are not supposed to consume alcohol???) you name it and it’s there, it’s quite swish. The pigskin seats were later rectified and the prince of (I forget where), one of the Arab countries did buy it and then later upgraded to a bigger plane and gave this one to his wife.  Michael Jackson chartered this plane a lot for his tours and wanted to buy it but new laws for sound control had been introduced into the states and the engines were too noisy so the purchase fell through, this was also later rectified. Just a bit of trivia for you all.

13^th August, Wednesday This morning I went to see the Stockmans Hall of Fame.  Ralph went yesterday because, as I told you before, we do things in turn because of Hugo.  The Hall of Fame is really well done and full of history of the old families in this area.  We then went into town for the usual stock up of food because we are moving on tomorrow to the gem fields.  I wanted to buy a blanket because it’s getting a bit chilly at night and I can’t find one anywhere, it’s bizarre because these people are used to the hot weather and  I would have thought that they would need the extra blanket like old woosy face here who is getting a bit chilly at night and who needs her extra layer. Got back and a couple invited us for drinkies, didn’t stay long as we are packing up as we leave for the gem fields in the morning (Sapphire, Rubyvale and Emerald).  Nice people, down to earth and reminds me of you all…… miss you xxxxxxx,