Friday, 29 June 2012

Townsville

Hi everyone, arrived in Townsville on Thursday.  It is quite a big place after outback QLD, seems to be about the size of Geelong.  We will be here until next Friday then head up to Mission Beach for 5 days. MB took the brunt of Cyclone Yasi, so it will be interesting to see how the town has recovered.. After that we will go to Cairns.. Yesterday we went up to the lookout- T/Ville is surrounded by mountains & you would not know you are on the coast until you actually see the water.  The weather is overcast with bursts of sunshine, about 25 degrees & humid. The locals are all complaining it is the coldest winter in years! They can pick us as tourists as they are all in jeans & jumpers & we (about half of Victoria seems to be here) all wear shorts & T shirts. We stayed one night at Charters Towers, a really lovely town, & wished we had booked for longer but we can't see everything. Here are some pictures of Townsville, mostly from the lookout.

Our journey to the outback & to Townsville




Looking West

East to the Coral Sea & Magnetic Island



RAAF Base & local Airport



Port Area

Above & below, the Rockpool with Magnetic Island in the background.  The water is filtered so "Stingers" cannot infiltrate


Sunday, 24 June 2012

Winton - Dinosaur Stampede

Yesterday we arrived at Winton in outback QLD. It is a small town with not too many features but the bush caravan park is fun, once again like our last park great entertainment & friendly.  Each night you can get soup, roast & dessert for $20, followed by songs, jokes, poetry in the big barn. To our Victorian eyes the surrounding countryside looks very dry, but they have had good rainfall for the last 3 years so they think its tropical now after the drought! Today we went to see the Dinosaur Stampede- the is the only place in the world where there is a fossilised record of hundreds of small dinosaurs & their babies fleeing a bigger dinosaur. The footprints are small, they were originally thought to be birds up until 1960. The fossils have now been covered by a big building to protect them. The site is 110 km from Winton, most of it gravel road with sheep & cattle roaming over it.  We also saw lots of roadkill, including a black feral pig. Above the exhibition is a track up to a lookout where you can see the distant plains.







Footprints of the larger dinossaur, a bit hard to see but it surrounded by smaller ones. These are 95 million years old




Petrified treefern & other fosills




Thursday, 21 June 2012

Longreach - Stockman's Hall of Fame - Longreach School of Distance learningl

The Longreach  Stockman's Hall of Fame, a fantastic place to visit, we loved it.  There are so many displays & interactive activities, you need the whole day to fully appreciate it. We also went to Stockman's Show which was very informative & very funny.





A map of  the known western coastline mid 1600's
This is to us one of the best displays- a giant map with tiny little lights. In the panel in front there is information about the explorers treks, you pick an explorer & the map lights up showing the route they took. There are about 18 different explorers/routes to see.

Old wagon filled with provisions

Dray for bullock team- I could walk under it without hitting my head

Outside setting for the show
Riding bareback & controlling the horse with gentle touches

Giant windmill

 
The stockman asked me to hop up behind him! I didn't, but wish I had, he was lovely!

Telling us about how the Camel came to replace horses & bullocks in the outback

Bullock team- these beasts are enormous, like small elephants. The sheep dogs rounded them up & bought them into the yard, where we were shown how they were harnessed to the dray. He recited a C J Dennis poem whilst harnessing them

Bullock team dragging a log

A little pouch was attached to this bullock for tips. Ginny popping some money in


One section showing mock-up of inside the Royal Flying Doctor Service aircraft

Sculpture of "The Ringer"


Longreach school of the air-

for students and families who travel great distances once or twice a year to visit the school
LSODE Quarters




The school has 8 studios to teach the children using telephone, internet  & good old snail-mail

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Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Longreach Qantas museum

 Today we went to the Qantas Founders Museum  at Longreach. Longreach is a small country town in outback QLD where the airline was born. There are two stunning planes there, the 747 (Jumbo Jet) & the 707 the first jet airliner QANTAS bought in the late 1950"s I think.  Today we got so much information, it is hard to relate exact dates.  Unfortunately the  Jumbo Jet has been closed for the last few months, due to the ground below sinking & no visitors allowed, which was a real let down, I was so looking forward to seeing it.  However I got to tour the 707 & do a Wing  Walk.  I got a bit faint on the wing walk still I did it,  The 707 has an interesting history, once amongst other  live's it became a private plane for rock stars including Michael Jackson.

Underneath the Jumbo Jet, note the supporting structures after the ground subsided, half a metre in one night

Cattalina aircraft  in the process of being restored, used in WW2


The 707 I went on the tour, paid extra after tour to do a super tour, including the Wing Walk

Became a luxury Jet, this is the toilet


In front of the 747 Jumbo

Flight deck of the 707

Private lounge  when the plane was privately owned by really rich people 

Starting the wing walk. I got out as far as this, but then felt a bit dizzy, so beat a hasty retreat!

Clipped to the harness for the wing walk




Grae- Hi honey I'm home!


Passenger plane I think from the early 1930's, the first plane to have a toilet