Longreach, Queensland

Longreach was quite a special place to visit, it had a real feel of cowboy country with a history steeped in the history of not only the drovers of cattle but in the Indigenous people the Iningai. These Indigenous groups were nomadic, highly ritualistic and spiritual who lived with the seasons, surviving through boom and bust. Unfortunately history has been harsh and for reasons such as disease, violence and transmigration there is little trace of individuals or cultural practices. The name of Longreach derives from the "Long Reach" or waterhole of the Thomson River used by drovers as a place to rest their cattle and horses before heading further out. We spent 3 nights here and visited many places. We went to the Stockman's Hall of fame a fantastic tribute to the people of outback Australia. It tells the story of the rural areas from the arrival of the Aborigines more than 40,000 years ago, settled by the British, exploration, the establishment of grazing, agriculture, mining, forestry and other industries in country Australia. We spent quite a few hours as you can imagine reading about the individual pioneers, how they came to Australia, what they did and how they died. We went for an evening cruise on the Thomson River and had a bushfire dinner and listened to a bush poet with stories of the outback and also went to a sheepdog show and saw whip cracking and a snake handler. All in all we had a great time although we didn't visit the Qantas Founders Museum...perhaps another time.