Central Queensland - Mount Isa to Longreach

Day 28 - Wednesday 3rd Oct - From Lawn Hill to Mount Isa - by "Trudy"

We did a quick pack up of our camper before the heat set in and we headed off from Lawn Hill. Our only creek crossing for the day was the picturesque Gregory river just before we stopped at Riversleigh to check out the fossils that are imbeded in rocks and hillside in that area. The kids learnt how the ancient animal fossils were formed and we did a walk around the area. The dirt road south was very rough, rocky and corrigated which caused havoc with our tyres and meant that we got a good view of the country from the roadside. The first puncture (slashed tyre) was on the Prado and the second puncture (again slashed tyre) was on the trailer. Both were big cuts that were slashed by sharp rocks and Chris spent ages trying to plug the holds so we could limp our way to Mount Isa as we had used our 2 spare tyres already (with another puncture last week). God certainly directed our path to make the next 200 kms to Mount Isa and we were blessed by a guy at Tuff Tyres who happened to have a second hand tyre of our uncommon type plus another sort the same size. Both of our original tyres were unrepairable and the kind man not only sold us 2 second hand tyres, disposed of ours as well as fitted one on the trailer and only wanted to charge us a pittance of $50! This was such a relief and we treated ourselves to KFC for a late lunch (4:30pm), had a look around Mount Isa and at the view from the lookout (including the stunning site of the sun streaming through the dark pollution clouds coming from the mine and smelter - was a good reminder that behind every cloud is a silver lining!). We decided to keep driving and set up for the night at a free camping spot by the Corella Dam about 65 kms out of Mount Isa. We all loved the serenity and beautiful sunset over the dam and enjoyed dinner under the stars and quality family time.

A beautiful water lily

Gregory River crossing near Riversleigh

Learning about fossil discoveries at Riversleigh

The first tyre puncture

The second tyre puncture on the trailer

Looking out over Mount Isa

Mikayla and Amy doing some school work on sunset at Corella Dam

Day 29 - Thursday 4th Oct - Corella Dam,  Winton, and Longreach - by "Amy"

We had a peaceful start to the day getting up and packing away the camper. When the inside of the camper was packed away Mum and Dad folded up the camper then we drove off. We drove through a little town called McKinlay and had a look in the Walkabout Creek Hotel that was in the Crocodile Dundee movie. We kept on driving and reached the town of Winton. At Winton we went to the information centre and found out about some interesting things to see and it has a display for the Waltzing Matilda song. We went to look at Arno's wall which had all sorts of things cemented in the walls like TV's, microwaves, tyres, golf balls, 3 motorbikes, a kitchen sink and many other objects. Next we drove to the musical fence that had all different instruments made out of old tin and recycled things. Some of the instruments that were there was a fence that sounded like a guitar, a drum kit, and lots of other percussion instruments. Ryan did a good job playing songs on the fence. After that we went to the bakery and got some lunch. I enjoyed my chicken and vegetable pie. About 12 km outside of Winton we went to the Age of the Dinosaur fossil centre where we did a tour. It was interesting to find out about some of the dinosaur bones, dinosaurs and how the people get the fossils out of the ground. In the laboratory we watched the people get the rock off of the fossilized bones using special tools that sounded like a dentist drill. We drove another 170 km to get to Longreach and found a caravan park to stay at. We had dinner and then all had a great shower before going to bed.

The pub from the movie "Crocodile Dundee"

A wagon in Winton

Part of Arno's wall in Winton,  filled with all sorts of objects

Amy playing the outback drum kit

The Musical fence of Winton and the other percussion instruments

Amy wresling "Banjo" at the Age of the Dinosaur fossil centre

Day 30 - Friday 5th Oct - Longreach and the Qantas museum - by "Mikayla"

In the morning we had a nice sleep-in because there was no rush to go anywhere. Once Amy and I got up from the speedy tent and started having breakfast a couple of brolga birds came to join us at our tent. We had a relaxing morning not doing much then later Ryan, Amy and I went for a swim. The pool was cold like at Josephine Falls but we got in for a bit. When we had finished swimming we had a nice shower then got an ice cream. Dad had gone shopping for hardware things and mum did all of the clothes washing. When dad got back we all went to the Qantas founders museum. At the museum we went on a tour to find out and have a look at the big 747 plane as well as the 707 plane. The 747 was a massive Qantas plane with 3 stories for freight, passengers and business class and we got to have a look all around it which was very cool. We found out alot about the plane and even got to sit in the cockpit. The 707 was the first Qantas jet plane and it is the first one out of just 13 of that short model of which only 3 are left in the world. Qantas needed this short type to fly into the short Fiji runway at the time because the longer types couldn't land there. The 707 plane was set up as a private jet plane which was very impressive and was used by Michael Jackson during his worldwide History tour. Michael even wanted to buy the plane. Ryan was very excited to get to sit where Michael Jackson had sat! After we had finished looking at the planes we looked around the Qantas museum and had a nice lunch at the cafe. Afterwards we went grocery shopping then went back to the Longreach caravan park for another swim. In the afternoon I cut out pictures from brochures for my journal and played games with Amy. For dinner dad made a scumidiliousis pasta then we all played a card game of "hearts" before bed.

A brolga visiting our camp

Mikayla and Trudy in the Qantas 747 engine

Chris and Trudy in the 747 cockpit

The Qantas 747 in Longreach

Ryan enjoyed being in the impressive 707 plane that Michael Jackson used

Ryan, Mikayla and Amy in the old DH50

The friendly brolga that Amy nicknamed "Feathers"

Take care and stay warm !

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Rough map of our trip so far ......