Yours Magazine Australia — January 04, 2018

beneath gums and stars. With

a tin shack as backdrop, Owen

Blundell strums and sings tunes

ranging from Slim Dusty to

Chuck Berry – and he’s a deft

hand at playing the spoons.

Outback Pioneers (outback

pioneers.com.au), based in

an 1880s ex-hotel building,

is Longreach’s heritage

heavyweight. Run by the

Kinnon family of graziers, there’s

all kinds of iconic outbackery

on offer, including slab-hut and

homestead-style 4/4.5-star

accommodation.

The decor’s all corrugated iron

and hurricane lamps; the highlight

is a rattling ride in a horse-drawn

Cobb & Co stagecoach. Heads turn

as we clop down Eagle Street and

onto the town common – actually

17,000ha of bush. Roos peek from

scrubbeforeweturnatabillabong

shaded by coolabah trees, and we’re

half expecting a swagman with

a jumbuck in his tuckerbag.

Back at base, it’s smoko (scones

with jam and cream, and tea or

coffee) followed by a bush movie

• 1950s Chips Rafferty flickSmiley
  Gets a Gun, with a positively girlish
  Ruth Cracknell – fills the time
  before midday’s Harry Redford
  Old Time Tent Show.
  Now I’ve promised not to blab
  about the horse with its tail where

its head should be. And I probably

shouldn’t say what’s in the outback

dunny. But I’ll cheerfully admit the

jokes were older than Winton’s

dinos, and all had a great laugh.

Amoresoberlookatlifeonthe

land, plus a Flying Doctor exhibit,

awaits at the Australian Stockman’s

HallofFame(outbackheritage.com.

au). Nearby, adjoining the airport,

Qantas Founders Museum (qfom.

com.au) tells the story of Australia’s

national airline, which first took off

as a bush service at Longreach.

Planes range from a replica of

its first plane, a tiny Avro 504K,

to a Boeing 747 jet. Zoom into

the virtual clouds on the flight

simulators – a modern Lockheed

Martin F-35 Lightning II jet and

a Great War-era Bristol Fighter.

The site incorporates the original

Qantas hangar, built in 1922. That

year, the fledgling airline flew its first

ticketed passenger from here, soaring

ove “the vision splendid of

t e sunlit plains extended”, as

Banjo Paterson famously described

western Queensland in his ballad

Clancy of the Overflow.

So what better name for Winton’s

annual outback film festival than

Vision Splendid? And what better

venue than the town’s Royal Open

Air Theatre? One of the very few left

in Australia, every June this outdoor

deckchair cinema hosts an evening

program behind a corrugated-iron

wall but open to the stars.

In the back row looms the world’s

biggest deckchair – ideal if a stray

surviving sauropod ambles in. The

laconic locals wouldn’t be fazed.

They’d probably just smile and offer

itacoldiefromthefridge.Youdon’t

have to dig too far to find that kind

of hospitality in outback Queensland.

For more information and details visit

queensland.com/en-au/explore-

queensland/outback-queensland

YOU’RE WELCOME

Grab some tucker

and book a tour at

Outback Pioneers

SEE PLANES

A Catalina PBY- 6A

flying boat at Qantas

Founders Museum

DREAMTIME

The area’s

dotted with

rock art

FLAT OUT

Winton’s

full of

colourful

characters

TRAVEL

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