Wednesday...13 July 2011

Up early....sounds of screaming children always have the effect of alarm clocks! The precious little ones in the tent next to our van were up and on the go nice and early today, probably because they were cold, it was only 6 degrees at 7.30am! They screamed and yelled and had the time of their lives chasing each other all over the van park, while mum and dad packed up the camper trailer/tent. End result we got up early too and were ready to break camp by 9.00am, a new record for us.
Found out too late that Winton is the home of an actual dinosaur dig. A few kms out of town we passed a turn off to a dinosaur discovery centre. Seems our friend Muttasaurus used to hang around the Winton area. Never mind we will check it out on our way back through Winton after we leave Longreach. Our journery here was relatively easy, only the one stop for 15 mins at road works about half way between Winton and Longreach.
When we arrived we checked into the largest park in town and once we had set up camp we headed out to see the Qantas Founders Museum. It is located at the Longreach airport in a purpose built building right next to the original hangar that Qantas started from. We toured the museum and the original hangar.

Now that is history. We all jump on planes and think nothing of it, but here we are in the middle of nowhere, well actually in the middle of Queensland, and this is where the national airline began all those years ago. It is amazing to think that something that began in the outback became a national icon.

A very interesting afternoon. Tomorrow we are booked to do the tour,show and lunch at the Stockmans Hall of Fame.