126 Kms Winton to Opalton then Lark Quarry

Day 16


Today we went for a long drive out into Opalton were we found Opals,but they were tiny.


Then we drove further to Lark Quarry were there are dinosaur foot print fossils, but we missed the final tour so we didn't get to see it, but walked around the conservation park which was interesting.

179 Kms Longreach to Winton

Day 15

Today we went back to the Stockmans Hall of fame and had a look at the rest of the exhibits. There was a lovely memorial garden at the front of the grounds with lots of brass statues.

Then drove to Winton ,were we stayed behind the North Gregory Hotel, which is were the song Waltzing Matilda was first sung.

The Hotel was right next to Arno's wall, which is a wall that has things cemented into it , making it more a work of art.

Longreach - Saxophone Lesson by the banks of the Thompson River

My first Saxophone Lesson

Mum set up a picnic by the Thompson River we had a bite to eat and, went fishing the Dad gave me my first lesson.





We looked a music first the practised some notes, before playing a tune.

Longreach - School of the Air

Day 14
Today we went to The School of The Air and had a look around it was pretty cool and now that I've said this I want to clear something I'm not doing school of the air I'm doing home school, OK.

They enrol prep to year 12 and they often have get-togethers. Before we left mum bought me a shirt as a souvenir.

27 kms to Longreach

After arriving in Longreach and settling in at the Caravan Park we planned the next day to start looking around. But before that we collected our first shipment of mail from the local post office.




Day 13
Today we went to the QANTAS Founders Museum which is the first head quarters of Qantas, but its no longer active and we went for a tour of the 747 Jumbo Jet and our tour guide let us do some things that we didn't pay for (I got to go under the floor) and I sat in the pilot's seat and then she let us go in the other plane.


They've got the Boeing 707 which was a privet jet for a Saudi Prince Bandar for free, if we had paid for that part of the tour, it would of cost another $100 so it was great a bonus.

The plane was really luxurious with lots of timber panels and the bathrooms had solid gold fittings.






We went to the Stockmans Hall of fame it is pretty cool but we didn't see all of the museum, which was OK because we went back later.

80 Kms Barcaldine to Ilfracombe

We drove to Longreach and on the way we stopped at Ilfracombe.




Ilfracombe is a tiny town with only 190 living in town.






Along the northern side of the main road, there is what they call the Machinery Mile.

It has a display of steam engines, tractors, pumps, graders, trucks, drays, and buggies.






We took pictures of so old machinery then went into the pub (Wellshot Hotel).
and there were these hat and money all over the roof and we got so awesome pictures.

84 Kms Jerico to Barcaldine

Day 12

We planned to spend some time in Barcaldine but due to being off season, many things were closed.

We did visit the Tree of knowledge, here are some notes from a local web site about it ....


The tree of knowledge is a ghost gun (Eucalyptus Papuana) growing in the main street in Barcaldine. It is situated in front of the Railway station and is celebrates as being the central meeting place for the Shearers' Strike during the upheaval in 1891.

Although the shearers' strike spread far and wide, Barcaldine became the central point of the strike leaders who were sentenced with conspiracy receiving three years hard labour. Although the dispute was settled before this the 13 leaders still had to serve their three years.

This disturbance eventually led to the formation of the Australian Labour party. The Tree of Knowledge committee commemorates the 1892 struggle with a beautifully landscaped garden. The tree is said to be at least 170 years old.

The Tree of Knowledge was included in the National Heritage List on 26th January 2006. Sadly it was poisoned in 2006 and did not recover. However a memorial has been erected and was opened on 2nd May, 2009.

We also tried to visit The Australian Workers Heritage Centre, however this was one of the things that was closed. We did get some photos from outside though.

We stopped near a nice park in the middle of town near the TAFE and Mum cooked us lunch in the van, but we sat at a picnic table in the park under some trees which was nice.

There was a mural saying Barcaldine in the middle of town which was painted by Les D'Arcy.

55 Kms Alpha to Jerico

Went we go to Jericho .we set up camp at the Show-ground Caravan Park.

We went into town and checked out these rock sculptures that tell the story of the real Jericho (The Crystal Trumpeters).

In 1988 the 'Crystal Trumpeters' were constructed in memory of the Biblical story where the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for six days and blew their trumpets on the seventh day and watched as the city walls collapsed.

The crystals symbolise various moments in the Old Testament such as the slavery in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the receiving of the Ten Commandments, the crossing of the River Jordan and the arrival in the Promised Land.

As always we checked out the local pub as well.

174 Kms to Alpha

We headed off from Emerald towards Jericho but before we got there we visited Alpha.


Alpha has many murals (27 in total) painted around the town.


We went for a walk around the town and took pictures of these beautiful mural paintings on the buildings.


There is a nice country pub where we stopped for a drink, before heading off to Jericho where we planned to stay the night.

Emerald

Day 11

We went back to the welder and dropped the caravan off then we went for a drive up to Fairburn Dam just outside Emerald.

The Dam was really brown from all the run off from rain over the last month.

We had a picnic lunch and took some photos then went back to town.





There was an amazing fossilised tree which was 250 million years old outside Emerald's Town Hall. We had a walk around town then headed to back to pick up the caravan.

It turns out the suspension had "flipped-over", presumably because of going over some rough ground or over a big bump. The van looked the same as when we bought it, but looks much higher now it has been fixed. Funny no one had picked this up before now, it had been for a service and everything. Oh well - all sorted.

160 Kms to Emerald

Day 10


Today we drove to Emerald via Rolleston and before we'd left Carnarvon we stopped at an old plane wreck and I found kangaroo bones.




In Emerald we found someone to fix the suspension and he told us to come back tomorrow.

Carnarvon Gorge

Day 9

Before we went into the gorge we stopped by the rangers office.


The Ranger said there was lots of damage on the track because of the floods and that they had to close some of the track because it was too dangerous.





We hiked as far as we could into the Gorge and the furthest point we got to was a spot call The Art Gallery.




The Art Gallery a sandstone rock face that is covered in Aboriginal artwork which is an amazing site to see.























Next we started to head back and went into Wards Canyon, which is a canyon lost in time because of the Rare King Fern that grows there, this is strange inland because of the harsh climate but in the canyon the climate is cool and lush environment for which Australia was like a very long time ago.


Next we stopped at a natural Amphitheatre, which is a 60m deep chamber gouged from the rock by running water, hidden inside the walls of the gorge. Resounding acoustics add to the awe-inspiring atmosphere within. Mum and Dad sang songs so we could hear the acoustics at work.

We were heading to the next spot called the Moss Garden when it started to rain (with thunder and lightening), but it stopped before we got there, but Mum was a worry wart and wanted us to go straight back.

When we were going back to camp when we stop a place called the Rock Pool and went for a swim in the river, it was warm and refreshing.

We had a barbecued dinner to finish off our day.