McKinlay - Winton - Longreach - Isisford
Outback Queensland

We woke up Sunday morning at the McKinlay Racecourse to see bodies in swags beside cars all over the paddock that was the car/caravan park. While we were sleeping there had clearly been a lot of post-race partying going on. The local cop was set up inside the gate doing breath tests on request for a gold coin donation to the fire brigade. What a great idea! He also breathalyzed every driver departing. Carol (our neighbour) and I had given it a nudge through the day and evening, so wandered over. We both blew 00.

Brian grabbed two $8 "recovery breakfasts" from the pavilion (steak, sausages, egg, tomatoes, bacon and a bread roll) we had long, hot showers, topped up the van's 160 litre water tanks (they only took 40 litres), packed up and were heading southeast to Winton by 10am. The 250 km trip along the Landsborough Highway took us through dry, flat, featureless and pretty uninteresting countryside. We made a stop at Kynuna and took photos of the historic Blue Heeler Hotel where Banjo Patterson supposedly drank and wrote. Further along the road we turned off to Combo Waterhole, the location the 'Jolly Swagman' was camped at when he drowned in the billabong trying to escape capture for pinching a sheep. Patterson wrote about him in 'Waltzing Matilda', a poem he penned at Dagwood Station just near the waterhole in 1895. The bush walk through and over the series of creeks dammed by hand-made stone causeways in the 1800's took about 40 minutes. It was interesting and a nice break in the drive.

On arrival at Winton we headed straight out to Long Waterhole a couple of Kilometers south of town. There were a lot of vans free camping, very little water, no greenery and large areas of dried bog. It wasn't very inviting. I did a foot inspection and found a track that headed away from the waterhole to open grazing land, so we took the van out there and set up by ourselves looking out into never-ending flat plains. It was silent, stark, and stunning, even more-so as the full  moon rose, absolutely huge in the pink and blue dusk. The light generated by the moon was so bright  it was like daylight. We rugged up against the cold night air and sat in front of roaring fire soaking up the outback. It was brilliant!

There is lots to do in Winton. They certainly have it set up for the tourists. We drove into town, parked in the wide main street and the three of us wandered along checking out our options for a cappuccino. There were several. We chose the bakery which was on the sunny side with outdoor seating. After a stroll up and down looking at the historic hotels and shop fronts, we decided we should go through the Waltzing Matilda Centre. We took James back to the van, headed back and bought two $19 entry tickets. It was money well spent. We did a session at the creatively presented Billabong Theatrette where the swagman ghost tells his side of the story, then worked our way slowly through the various museums and displays. It took a couple of hours.

After a bite of lunch under the huge windmill adjacent to the Centre we continued our sightseeing exercise; Arno's Wall (made with rocks and junk), The Musical Fence and tin percussion kit (which we played), the Truck Museum and a tour of the North Gregory Hotel. James was very pleased to see us when we got back to the van nearly five hours later.

We filled the rest of the day with "stuff". Brian fired up the generator and worked on his laptop, then spent ages on the tedious task of gently smashing up the glass stove top and scraping the tiny, glued particles from the steel underneath. Why Jayco put glass on caravan stoves is a mystery. It's the second time the glass has shattered while a pot has been simmering on the electric element at the back. James and I took the Beast cross country picking up firewood and generally exploring the area before going for a big walk and making a very big fire.

Monday morning James got a walk early with his boots on. They were on a lot of the time to protect his paws from the nasty burrs. He loves them. It was so funny to watch him belt across the dirt only to drop a front paw in a big crevice in the splitting soil and plant his nose into the ground, almost doing a somersault. I cracked up. He came into town with us to do a couple of loads of washing at the laundromat and have a cappy. While there we did the $3 tour of the Royal Open Air Theatre Museum which was built in 1938. James sat in the Beast. Back at the van Brian strung a line under the awning for the washing, then returned to town for his first haircut in 4 months. Bugger - I was hoping for a grey nomad pony tail! It had been really windy and at night it blew across the plains howling around the van - it was noisy but cosy. In the wind the everything was dry in an hour or two and after it was all packed away we headed out of town to visit the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum. What an education!

They call Winton the dinosaur capital of Australia, with good reason.The first fossil was found in 1962, the site later revealing a stampede with over 3,300 footprints. A 20-30 ton Sauropod nicknamed 'Elliot' was then found in 1999. Since then more bones have been unearthed than the museum can process. The museum is a stunning piece of architecture built on top of what they call 'The Jump Up', a huge mesa plateau that pops 75 meters out of flat plains with views of the surrounding country. It is home to the world's largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils and the biggest fossil preparation laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere.

The tour was amazing. We got to see the actual fossilized bones of not only Elliot, but also Banjo, Australia's largest known carnivorous dinosaur, and Matilda, a huge Sauropod. The guide explained about how an understanding of these dinosaurs, which lived over 100 million years ago, is arrived at. We also had a guided tour of the preparation area in which experts and volunteers work with dentist-like drills under microscopes to extract the fossils from the rock. 

Towards evening the three of us went on a big wood collecting exercise so that when we moved on to camp beside the river at Longreach the next day we would be able to have our fires. They are a must in the cold that descends after dark. The coals from Monday's fire were still glowing when we got up Tuesday so Brian pulled out the dual jaffle iron, used the last 4 sliced of bread and filled them with left over Chow Mein. What a disaster! It all fell totally apart, a big burnt mess. We packed the van up and went to the bakery for breaky. 

Winton is an 'RV Friendly' town and as such provides dump points to empty porta loos and also drinking water. The water is from the Artesian Basin and comes out of the ground scorching hot and smells like rotten egg gas. It gets cooled to about 33 degrees before delivery to the towns supply system. We were told that once exposed to the air the stink dissipates and it is lovely to drink. Before leaving Winton Brian topped up the tanks while I emptied and cleaned the dunny. 

Longreach was 180 km southeast on the Landsborough Hwy. At least ninety percent of the oncoming traffic on-route were tourists. When we got to Apex Riverside Park just west of Longreach at 11.30 am we were disappointed to find it was nothing more than a large gravel area sort of adjacent to the river. We had expected bush camping along the river with trees and space. Wrong! It was already half full of vans, motor-homes and trailers parked close together. We slotted into the back row with just enough room to put up the awning and park the car. By the end of the day the area was overflowing with close to 100 campers. Yuk!

We drove into town and checked out the paid caravan parks. They were packed in like sardines as well so decided we'd stick with the free camping and stay just long enough to see what we wanted of the area. We went for a walk around the main street which was teeming with people. With the famous Qantas Museum, Stockman's Hall of Fame and Powerhouse Museum among other popular attractions, Longreach is a 'must do' outback destination. It's a nice enough place but too busy and crowded for my liking. Back at the van Brian had work to catch up on, then we rode the bikes back into town and did some exploring. Every single street in Longreach is named after a bird. It's a pretty big place as far as outback towns go and they do look after the tourist trade. They were doing a lot of work beautifying the main street while we were there. Just before dark I lit a lovely big fire in the fire pit (which we keep stored under the bed) and the neighbours came over with their chairs. Dave was a baker and we chatted about making bread in the camp oven. I'm going to give it a try.  

When Brian first opened the door of the van Wednesday morning he was greeted by a small cat. It was very friendly and very, very hungry. Brian had dry cat food in the Beast (used for cherabin bait), so gave puss a good feed. James was quite intrigued. His idea of cats is that they run and you chase. 'Scrubcat', as Brian named it, was totally relaxed with James. It walked up to him and they touched noses. They spent most of the day in each other's company. Of the 100 plus camps set up, for some reason Scrubcat adopted us. Our day was lazy. We didn't really do anything significant...coffee and a spot of shopping, kindles, computers, reading, bike riding and fishing. Once again we lit a beautiful big fire and Scrubcat spent the night in front of it on Brian's knee. That's quite something given Brian hates cats! 

Scrubcat was at the door waiting for Brian first thing next morning and got a feed and some TLC. When James eventually braved the cold and got out from under the covers of our bed he was greeted with a big smooch from his new friend. We went for a walk over the river on the bridge adjacent to the park. It is part of a stock route and used purely for cattle (and foot traffic) to cross the river . James thought it smelt excellent! He then got to stay in the van for a few hours while we biked into town.

We rode to the opposite end of town to the Stockman's Hall of Fame. It is considered to be the jewel in the crown of all that Longreach has to offer in the way of tourist attractions and it certainly doesn't disappoint. The external presentation is beautiful - it reminded me of the Sydney Opera House. Inside is also stunning. There are three levels and various galleries that take the visitor sequentially through the history of Australia. It starts with how the continent was geographically formed, first inhabitants, discovery by explorers in the 1600's and of course, the role of the men and women exploring and working on the land in the outback. There is so much to see and read it is impossible to take it all in. 

There are a few different ticket packages. We opted for the pass to the Hall and a one hour 'Outback Show' in an external arena. Lachie Cosser, stockman, animal trainer and singer put on a fantastic performance. He did some amazing riding on a couple of the horses as well as tricks which demonstrated just how well they were trained. It was part education, part comedy, all entertainment and included dogs, ponies, sheep, pigs, and a bullock. Our last night at Longreach was spent in front of a big fire, Scrubcat purring loudly on Brian's knee.

Friday Scrubcat had his morning feed then disappeared, which was good - Brian didn't have to say goodbye. We were leaving Longreach, happy to escape the sardine tin we'd been camping in for three nights.

Our destination was Isisford around 100 km south. The nomads beside us at Longreach had done a day trip there and told us about the great camping on the banks of the Barcoo River - sounded perfect! We traveled east to Ilfracombe where we stopped to wander around the free roadside museum. It was a huge collection of old cars, trucks and farm machinery, a cottage built in 1906 furnished as per the era and an extensive antique gun collection. From there we turned off the highway heading south along a single lane road with hardly any other traffic. 

Everywhere in outback Queensland is dry, and so was countryside we drove through except it wasn't barren - the paddocks were full of long grass and there were densely treed areas. We stopped along the road and collected as much firewood as we could cram into the back of the beast. We picked up lots of beautiful, dry, heavy, rooty bits. I love good wood!

Isisford is a small town - two pubs, a post office, general store, a couple of shops, council offices, school and the driest 18 hole golf course you have ever seen in your life. Behind the main street is the Barcoo River camping area. It's very expensive to stay - $2 per night or $10 per week, per van, payable (if you're honest) at the council building. They provide a basic toilet, dump point and a tap with filtered water. If you want a shower there's one behind the council building that sort of works for a gold coin donation (so we were told).

There were lots of campers on the river when we arrived so we kept driving along the dirt track until we found a spot that suited us. It was perfect and had clearly just been vacated as the fire pit was full of hot coals. James was sooo happy. It was just like being on the Murray, only much smaller. He sat on the bank and gazed contentedly into the river while we set up. We immediately decided we'd pay our $10 and stay a week.

After a quick sandwich and cuppa we jumped on the bikes and did a circuit of town. At one of the pubs they were having a cancer fundraiser and shaving or spray painting heads. They called to us as we were riding past to come on in, so we did, and had a drink while we watched several little kids get their heads shaved. it cost $5 to watch. I was tempted to get my head shaved but wasn't too keen on the shared shaver or the publican driving it. Back at camp I pulled out the electric clippers, fired up the generator and  talked Brian into doing a short cut on me, which he reluctantly did. I'm not quite bald but my hair is now VERY short.