Lower levels:
Roadkill
Waltzing Matilda

Navigation:

Following the road from Rubyvale, a Kangeroo splattered dirt track (see Roadkill if you're not squeamish or feeling morbid), we meander East to the small town of Wilton to find out what, precisely, 'Waltzing Matilda' is all about.  From here its back via the revered town of Longreach. 

Quantas Airways started here. Initially with a handful of propeller planes that hopped from town to town - then from country to country.

So, if you were filthy rich, your could fly from Longreach to London with Quantas in ten days as opposed to taking a six week long cruise.

Longreach is sort of middle of the central outback and only a few hundred clicks from Mount Isa.

Like most outback towns, Longreach is a petrol stop with a handful of houses and a motel or two. Except Longreach has become multiple petrol stations, multiple households and multiple motels owing to the fact that it hosts the Quantas Museum and the Stockmans Hall of Fame - neither of which explain why this place has become a Mecca for all Australians. 

In fairness, both the Quantas exhibition and the Hall of Fame (which charts the history of Australia through the eyes of cattle herders) are excellent places to visit. Added to which, a visit to the Stockmans pub in the high street yielded not only a few good laughs at the expense of the patron, a Hungarian illegal immigrant, but also their local clientele - several of whom were so pissed they could hardly sit on their barstools.

These chaps are the future history of Stralia...

Navigation: