Day 3 - 3 August
Stockman's Hall of Fame
Today we had a lot more leisurely start. Knowing that we
were only planning on going as far as Winton we didn't need to make haste, so
could have breakfast and pack up the car in daylight.
Only an hour or so up the road to Longreach. Here we stopped
to have a look at the Stockman's Hall of Fame. Luckily there was plenty of
parking space for our car with trailer still attached. The building itself is a
very impressive structure. John has visited here before, but it was Barb's
first visit. It was only just being built when she was last in Longreach for a colleague's
wedding back in 1981.
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| Barb outside the Stockman's Hall of Fame |
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| The wonderful architecture or the Hall of Fame |
You really could spend a lot of time here if you wanted to
read all the information and listen to and watch the interactive displays. There's
lots of
history here about the
establishment of the pastoral industry in the
Queensland
outback, and also the history of the Royal Flying Doctor service.
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| Inside the building |
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| John carefully examines each display |
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| Royal Flying Doctor Service plane |
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| Painting of some stockman |
After the Hall of Fame we called into the local IGA in
Longreach to buy fruit (we're trying to impress with our healthy eating!),
which surprisingly was a little cheaper than in Maleny. Then we headed off
towards Winton. The countryside looks very parched with few of the rivers
having any water at all in them. Less road kill on the road too, although we
did have to negotiate our way through a herd of cattle grazing by the side of
the road and who decided to run across in front of both us and an approaching
truck.
We found a cabin for the night in Winton. The two caravan
parks look terribly dry and stony and rather unappealing, but as we mean to
make an early getaway tomorrow, a room with internet and air con was a good
option.
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| The caravan park at Winton |
We walked down to Winton's main street to have a look at
what remains of the Waltzing Matilda Centre, which was destroyed by fire a few
months ago. It has had a serious detrimental impact on Winton's tourist
economy. Hopefully the nearby Dinosaur centre will keep things ticking over
until they can re-build it.
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| John at the Waltzing Matilda Centre |
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| Dinosaurs at Winton |
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| You can see the burnt roof of the building |
On the plus side we had a late lunch at the bakery where
John had praised the sausage roll in January. Barb pronounced her sausage roll
"OK" and the coffee "quite good". John liked his plain meat pie and cup of tea. So now you know ... oh, did we hint at
healthy eating?
Did you visit Arno's wall? Or try your skills out on the Musical Fence? The outdoor cinema? We loved Winton! Keep enjoying the travelling and seeing the sights!
ReplyDeleteWe did see the outdoor cinema (from the outside). It wasn't open. We took a walk around Winton but didn't find Arno's Wall. We discovered too late we must've walked within metres of it. Oh well.....we'll have to visit again.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! You've left one or two reasons to return to Winton! Notice you also enjoyed the culinary delights of the bakery we frequented. It was good to hear their standard is still up there!
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