Preview from the Bash Bulletin
Another long run that takes us deep into Queensland’s cattle country and a night in Longreach where dinner will be at the QANTAS Founders Museum where we can have a good look around at out aviation history.
Map
This shows the area covered during the day, from Charleville to Longreach.
Highlights along the way
The shortest route from Charleville to Longreach is 515km, but which way we go, how far we go, is anybody’s guess! Google says that would take about 5.5 hours.
Breakfast
Breakfast will be at the Charleville State School.
Blackall
Lunch will be in Blackall, on the Matilda Highway. Famous for many reasons, blade shearer Jack Howe put Blackall on the map in 1892 at ‘Alice Downs’ when he set a world record by shearing 321 sheep in seven hours and 40 minutes. It actually took another 58 years before anyone could match this feat and that was by machine shears. Blackall is also the home of the original Black Stump, which marks the original Astro Station established in 1887. Places west of this point are said to be ‘beyond the black stump’.
Longreach
Longreach is named after the “long reach” of the Thomson River, on which it is situated. Longreach is in the heartland of Queensland, in pastoral country. Things to see in Longreach include the Stockman Hall of Fame and the Qantas Founders’ Outback Museum. Longreach was one of the first places Qantas flew to, and the Longreach Airport is on the National Heritage List.
Governor-General Quentin Bryce spent her early years in Ilfracombe just east of Longreach.
Population: 2,976
