Monday 1st June - Longreach

Monday 1^st June

On Monday we  gave the Office of the Hotel we stayed at our keys for the cabin we Slept in that night . We went through the dingo fence the way we got through the dingo fence there was a road through but on the road there is a grid and the dingoes DON'T like going over the grid. After a BIG drive we stopped at a playground for morning tea. At the playground it was marshy and wet. (For morning tea we had two Biscuits and sultanas each). After another BIG drive we stopped for lunch. For lunch I had a plain meat pie. In the middle of lunch Dad found out that Caleb had a tick behind his ear but luckily a man on another table new how to get rid of ticks so we got of the tick but it's tiny grabbers wouldn't come off. After lunch we went for another BIG drive we stopped at a QANTAS museum. At the QANTAS museum I learnt that QANTAS means Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service.

This is me in the first airplane that had a toilet.

This is one airplane out of 5 hanging from the roof.

Mum's note: 
Morning tea was at Blackall. Blackall is the site of the Black Stump, as of "Beyond the Black Stump" fame. The original stump, which was used for surveying, was burnt out and has been replaced with a large piece of petrified wood.

This side of the Black Stump......

Beyond the Black Stump!

The site of the Black Stump.

Lunch was in Barcaldine. We saw the Tree of Knowledge. This Ghost Gum, which is dead through an act of vandalism and is now covered by a sculpture that represents its original canopy, is considered to be the birth place of the Australian Labor Party.

The preserved remains of the Tree of Knowledge.

Standing under the sculpture and looking up.

Our destination today was Longreach. We were very impressed by the Qantas Founders Museum.

The museum is on the site of the original QANTAS hanger in Longreach.

Here the kids get to try out the comforts of air travel 1924-style. This is a replica of a DH-50 passenger cabin. The DH-50 was the first model of plane used for the RFDS.

This is one of two full scale replicas of QANTAS' very first plane - the Avro.

We were able to get up close and personal with this magnificent seaplane, the Catalina Flying Boat used in WWII. There were ladders and steps to see inside all the significant spaces.

We did indeed get to explore the inside of the first plane to be manufactured with a toilet. Looks the height of comfort!

A favourite was the Bristol Fighter biplane simulator. Note the horizon?!! Isabel was quite adept at barrel rolls!

Not suggesting you fly Caleb Air until he's had a little more practise though.....

 BTW, Caleb is none the worse for his close encounter with the tick.

We met our first brolgas in Longreach. This one has an identity crisis, but he is still very beautiful.