Boulia to Longreach

Hello all
On leaving Boulia I headed towards Winton for a couple of days.

There isn't much out here.....................the scenery being flat and featureless with the occasional section through 'jump up' country.

Boulia scenery

 There is a fairly pretty section through the Cawnpore Hills.

Cawnpore Hills

Cawnpore Hills

 Further along the road over 160km from anywhere was the Middleton Hotel, an old Cobb and Co stage coach rest stop.

Middleton Hotel

Middleton Hotel

After a rest day in Winton, it was off to see the Musical Fence. The Fence has been 'strung' to enable people to play a tune on it.

Winton Musical Fence

 A short distance away in Winton is "Arno's Wall" A wall built by Arno using junk, it even includes a kitchen sink.

Arno's wall Winton

Arno's Wall Winton

It was time to head towards Longreach, home of the Qantas Founders Museum and the Stockman's Hall of Fame.

Great Wall and a Boeing

the original QANTAS hanger built in the 1920's

DC-3

DH-61 Giant Moth

The 747 'City of Bunbury' was donated to the Museum in 2002. It was strange, after driving through barren landscapes and small communities to drive along and see a "Jumbo" sitting beside the road..................

Boeing 747-238B landing gear

 The Jumbo flew in on 16th November 2002, with Longreach Airstrip, being quite small, the plane will never leave. Landing, 2 engines were shut down to slow the approach to the 2 mile runway, but it needs double that to take off.

VH-EQB Boeing 747

Oringinally delivered to QANTAS on the 10th December 1979 this plane carried over 5,400,000 passengers and flew 82.54 million kilometres before being donated to the Museum.

you don't get to stand in the engine of a 747 every day

Jumbo cockpit

They also have a "pimped up" 707 on display, it was the first Boeing 707-138's delivered in 1959 to QANTAS.

Boeing 707-138

This Aircraft was used by QANTAS for many years before being being converted to Executive configuration in 1978, and used by Prince Bandar from Saudi Arabia for a few years, but ended up in storage at Southend UK in 1999. In 2006 it was restored by volunteers and flown to Longreach where it now sits.

the Lounge area

one of the "suites"

pretty flash toilet

After my day at the QANTAS Museum, it left no time for the Stockman's Hall of Fame, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.
Bye for now....................