Blogs from Mt Isa, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 3

27th June - Had a great day at the QANTAS Museum in Longreach. It was the first base for the airline after it’s conception in Winton, 200km north. The 747 pictured, was donated in 2006 for the 82nd anniversary. The runway at Longreach is only 600m long! Half the length normally needed to land a Jumbo. Some feat!! Needless to say, it will never be able to leave here. 28th June - The intention today was to get to Cloncurry but, after an extended stop in Winton, of banjo Patterson fame, we decided to stay at McKinlay, behind the Walkabout Creek Hotel. It was the pub used to film a number of scenes in the first Crocodile Dundee movie. Snaps attached! We went through a heap of locus on the way here so I’ll be cleaning ... read more

Friday 23rd April The breeze we had yesterday dropped so it seems a lot hotter today. Went out to the airport which was the site of the first landing as Qantas. Also John Flynn started the flying doctor service. Lyle spoke to 2 generations of the Bob Norman family on a helicopter flight from Cairns to Adelaide. Went back to the town bought a couple of things including new tubes for the lights, both lights failed including the spare! Looked at the Cloncurry version of a department store selling everything except food. From household goods to hardware & toys and every thing in between. They had just bought in a truck load of seedlings from Townsville. Not so sure how they were going to fare in the heat. Left and went back to Gilberts Park to ... read more

We are now in Queensland and on Eastern Standard Time once again. After leaving Tennant Creek, we called into the old Telegraph Station a few kilometres out of town to have a look around and read how they lived there when it was very remote, and morse code was the manner of sending messages. There were small buildings for smoking meat, and keeping food cool underground, a blacksmith's and a butchering building - all interesting. It was then a long long drive though more outback country towards the border. There were quite a few caravans and motor homes heading west - making us glad we were going the other way. Quite a few pull over early at roadside clearings to get good campsites for the night. At one, Avon Downs, where we stopped to make afternoon ... read more

14/6/09 Well back through the narrow road to Bourke & Wills , Still no Gas, so put some fuel in it, enough to get us to Cloncurry. I had a nap - first time on the trip, I have done well. We reached Cloncurry, filled up with fuel & had lunch & decided to go 60k’s to Fountain Springs Rest Area, no 304 QLD in the book. We got there about 2.30 & were surprised it was full. There must have been 30 vans in there, we squeezed into a spot then someone put up a tent under our window, but never mind it was a good night & a great happy hour & we saw a lot of familiar faces from other free camps. Some people had been there 4 nights & most were off ... read more

Tuesday April 14 2009 was our last day in Cairns. We had already spent 2 weeks in the city, which was just as much time as we had spent in Sydney. So it was time to move on to Alice Springs and journey to the Red Centre of Australia! Of course this happened to be on a Tuesday, so early that morning we made sure to check out another movie at the theatre across the street. Lol We saw DragonBall Evolution. It was fun. It took a lot of liberties with the original story, but as long as you recognized that and didn’t let it bother you, it was enjoyable. After the movie we hopped on the Greyhound bus to Townsville. The problem with getting to Alice Springs is that you have to backtrack along the ... read more