Saturday 19th August 2006

Dinner last night was had around the campfire in the caravan park and for the princely sum of $12.50 each, we enjoyed a very nice plate of roast pork and then loaded it up with vegetables, rice and chicken. Quite filling, so much so that Pammy didn't even have the sweets that were on offer for $3. We had the company of John and Helen, another couple who have been traveling the same way as we have been since Cobar and it was great to swap a yarn or two with them over the dinner.

After the dinner came the entertainment which was provided by singer, songwriter and comedian Tom McIvor for the cost of a gold coin donation. Although we hadn't heard of him before, he has won quite a few awards at the Tamworth Music Festival over the years, he was excellent value and all but one of his songs were his own. His humour was also very fitting for the location and he gave the caravaners a bit of 'curry' but maybe the bit that was funny is the fact that it was all pretty true, we could all see a bit of ourselves or someone else in his stories about 'the caravaner'. He had some CD's available for sale after the show and a number of people bought one, but as 'One of Us' couldn't make up her mind which one we should buy, be ended up with four of them at $15 each. A good night was had by all who attended and it was well worth the gold coin donation.

Another beautiful warm day with clear blue skies greeted us again this morning. We completed all our morning activities by about 9:am and then drove over the road to the QANTAS Founders Museum where we joined the 747 aircraft tour. This was conducted by a woman who certainly knew what she was talking about and had a great sense of humour as well. The tour lasted almost 90 minutes and started out under the 747 where a huge number of facts and figures were quoted and very clear descriptions provided on how various parts of the plane worked and why particular items were needed. The tour then entered the plane and a full tour of the inside was made, with full explanations and descriptions being provided along the way. There were sections of the aircraft walls, floor and ceiling cut out and replaced with clear perspex sheets so we could see into the workings of the plane. The last part of the tour allowed us to enter the cockpit of the 747 and see things from the perspective of the pilots that flew it. This particular 747 was purchased by QANTAS on 10th December 1979 and was named 'City of Bunbury'. The last flight it made was from Perth to Sydney on 9th November 2002 and was delivered to Longreach on 16th November 2002. It has flown 92,125 hours (10.5 years in the air), flown 82,540,000 kilometres (equal to 2000 trips around the world or 100 round trips to the moon), landed 18020 times and carried 5,400,000 passengers. This tour of the 747 was extremely informative and as we have said so many times before ' well worth the time and the $30 it cost ' and we recommend this tour to anyone passing this way.

Although we still hadn't entered the museum, we decided to head into town and do our shopping, post a letter to Jay and also fill up with fuel before midday and then return to the museum after lunch. We first filled up with fuel at the local Mobil depot and then visited the post office, a bakery and IGA store before returning to the caravan park for lunch.

After lunch we returned to the QANTAS Founders Museum and entered the museum rooms where we enjoyed re-visiting all the display items we had seen on our last visit and maybe a few more as well. After about another hour here, we returned to the caravan park and started our preparations for the evening, which included starting the website and organising for a BBQ later in the evening. We invited John and Helen to join us for a BBQ and also gave some assistance to John with his rear view camera, however unfortunately we were unable to get it working before it was time to settle down and start the Happy Hour, sitting in the warm afternoon sun enjoying the odd drink or two. This then lead on to the BBQ and further in depth conversation through until about 8:30pm.

Tomorrow it is time to move on to Winton where we intend to visit the Waltzing Matilda Centre before traveling further north to Hughenden.

Sunday 20th August 2006

Another great day to wake up to with the sky still as blue as ever and real shorts and t shirt weather. As we were only intending to travel to Winton today, we took our time packing up and saying farewell to John and Helen, and didn't get on the road until about 9:30am.

For about the first 110 kilometres it seemed we were traveling up hill most of the way and into a bit of a headwind as well. The countryside opened out with a lot less trees to block our view of the rolling slopes and ranges in the distance. When we were about 60 kilometres from Winton we passed a sign that said we were entering the Lake Eyre Basin, then from here we appeared to finally be moving on a slight downward direction..

Along the way we stopped for a photo opportunity near the turn off to Fairymead Station where a car obviously had not made it to where it was going, maybe they took a liking to the Fairy Mead around there, although it must have been a long time ago they stopped there.

We then continued on into Winton, arriving at about 11:45am and joined a queue of about five or six other caravans booking in to the park. The caravan park is a Top Tourist Park, however it is not one that would find itself on the front of any of their advertising brochures, and smelly artesian bore water again, oh well!!

After setting up for the next two nights here we had some left over steak in a sandwich for lunch before taking time to have a short drive around the town site. This did not take long and many of the houses and buildings within the town are showing pretty extreme signs of sun and weather damage, however the Waltzing Matilda Centre looks fairly good and that will be given most of our attention tomorrow. On the way back to the caravan we stopped off at a Four Square grocery store where 'One of Us' spied an ice cream and we also purchased a couple of cartons of mixed diet soft drink to top up our supplies.

Tonight we are attending another campfire dinner at 6:30pm followed with entertainment by a country ballard singer, however for the rest of the afternoon a book is looking good, and watching the Eagles beat Brisbane.

Last night we attended the campfire dinner in the caravan park and had a meal of roast beef and four vegetables whilst we listened to a country and western ballard singer who entertained the audience for about four hours, although we returned to the caravan before he had completed his repertoire. 'One of Us' thought the 'Other One' must have been missing out on his beauty sleep... not sure how to take that one??

Yawn.... Awoke to another great morning again, and in fact the day turned out to be quite warm day, in fact we think it got up to about 36 degree, however it wasn't that hot in the Waltzing Matilda Centre or the pub where we had lunch.

The days activities started out at about 9:45am when we drove down the street and made our first call to the Waltzing Matilda Centre. We paid an entry fee of $18 each which also gave us entry into other locations within the town. Once inside the Waltzing Matilda Centre we first viewed a sound and video show in a billabong inside the building. This pond had statues of the swagman, Troopers and the squatter around it and then the story of the swagman jumping into the pond and the ramifications the poem and song have had on Australia world wide over the years. This was done via a video projected onto a white surface, under the surface of the water. When this was over we continued through the centre, first into a gallery of paintings, then displays of past conditions and information on "Banjo" Patterson and the early settlers of the time. There was also a Hologram that ran for about 10 minutes and depicted modern 'legions such as Herb Elliot, Tommy Emmanuel and John Williamson talking about how the song 'Waltzing Matilda' had an effect on their careers.

There was still plenty to see within the centre, including a short film on outback development, more machinery such as a steam train, old vehicles, bottle collections and much more. We also entered a section that had information on early military service personnel from Winton and the development of QANTAS, which included a video that ran for over 30 minutes and was commentated by one of the QANTAS founders Hudson Fysh. We finally left this centre just over three hours after entering it.

At this time 'One of Us' was feeling faint with hunger so we walked down the street to the North Gregory Hotel where our entry ticket entitled us to a couple of drinks which we had with out steak sandwiches . We were lucky to be able to eat there as this hotel was built in 1878, burned down in 1900, rebuilt and burned to the ground in 1916, rebuilt and devastated in 1946 and then the current hotel was built again in 1955.

From here we had a look through the local outdoor cinema and opal display where 'One of Us' didn't get one this time, however she did buy a small souvenir or two to remember Winton by.

On the way back down the street we called in to the hotel bottle shop, then made our last call to the Corfield and Fitzmaurice Store which has a 'Dinosaur Diorama' where the cast of a fossilised bone of dinosaur 'Elliot' Australia's latest and largest dinosaur is displayed. he is 16.21 metres long Sauropod.

After this visit it was time to fill the Patrol up with fuel, and we returned to the caravan park at about 3:30pm. Not bad for what we expected to be a quick visit to the Waltzing Matilda Centre in town.

The real "Banjo" Patterson

Campfire entertainment at night