Day 06 – Wed, 7 Jul to Longreach

Well overnight the rain came down over Balcaldine – it literally fell from the sky. We woke to a dull and overcast day.

We took our time as today was going to be an easy ride day with lots of sightseeing. So we wandered down to the Tree of Knowledge and then up to the Australian Workers Museum. A stroll around Barcaldine and we were ready to go.

The Tree of Knowledge was so named as it was right at the railway station where in the early days the bullock drivers would deliver the wool from the homesteads to the rail link. They would meet under the tree and you can just imagine how much wisdom and rumour was dispensed under the tree – hence The Tree of Knowledge. It later became the rally point for the National Shearers’ Strike in1891.

We left town and headed for Longreach about 110km to the west. The ride was uneventful with some rain but generally drizzle off and on all the way. When we arrived in Longreach the cloud was low and we were later told that this was very unseasonal weather.  Again lots of complaints from the locals of how cold it was – in reality it was around 13C.

On the way, about 30km east of Longreach we passed through a small town called ILFRACOMBE where we had coffee and wandered along the main street (the highway) just amazed at the amount of old machinery and small museums of collections and all matter of items. These items were assembled along the northern side of the highway with the town basically along the southern side. They extended well over 300m along the highway – simply a tourism magnet.

So eventually we made Longreach and made a B-line for the Stockman Hall of Fame. What an amazing place. We spent almost 4 hours here and we just couldn’t read everything that was on display - lots of displays, information and interactive items. Well worth the 2,000+km to get here. It gives you a real sense of the stockman’s life but also the conditions experienced by the families that helped settle this wonderful land. It covered the pasturalists, the miners, the aboriginal involvement and all other aspects. Not only the famous ones but also coining their term – the Unsung Heroes.

On leaving we headed over to the Qantas Founders Museum which covered the history of the airline from initial beginnings to today. Longreach was the base of operations and the hangar still exists with exhibits of the machine shops where Qantas built its own airplanes in its early days.

The day ended with us searching for accommodation (all the pubs & motels were full), but we eventually got a bed in single rooms just near the Qantas Museum in Ray’s Outdoor Adventure – basically prefab rooms that Ray is trying to get off the ground – we think it maybe designed for the backpackers. In fact it is quite comfortable with air con in each room.

Rod has had problems with his bike (rear wheel bearing shot) and following calls to BMW Roadside Assist, tomorrow his bike is being shipped to the nearest BMW dealer at Mackay (over 700km to the east) and he his being supplied a rental car to follow me on my bike. He then hopes to have his bike forwarded to Cairns where he can get it back early next week so that he can finish his holiday, in style. Well that is the plan that he is trying to arrange but we will know for sure tomorrow morning.