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Today we went to the QANTAS Founders Museum which is the first head quarters of Qantas, but its no longer active and we went for a tour of the 747 Jumbo Jet and our tour guide let us do some things that we didn't pay for (I got to go under the floor) and I sat in the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