Qantas Founders Museum - Longreach Qld: Ron takes a wander in the Outback of Australia
For generations, the outback stock routes linked remote communities like Innamincka and Maree with their Queensland cousins. The cattlemen followed the sea of green than fans out through the channel country offering plenty of feed for stock being driven to the railheads of South Australia.
On board Dick Lang's Piper Chieftain we take in the myriad of rivers and their tributaries that stretch from places like Longreach in outback Queensland all the way to the Cooper and in a big wet - feed the great expanse of our very own Lake Eyre.
Since the 1880s, this has been an overland route for the cattlemen but as we touch down at Longreach there's confirmation of a much quicker form of transport and proof that a Jumbo can land here.
The 747 at Longreach is part of the Qantas Founders Museum. Each of its massive engines has twice the power of the little Chieftain that got us here. It's yet another reminder of how the evolution of the aeroplane helped conquer Australia's tyranny of distance. According to the Longreach locals at least, the Qantas story starts here.
"If you go to Winton they say it started there. If you go Charleville they say it started there… but Longreach has got the goods on board," said Colin Westwood, Manager Qantas Founders Museum.
Regardless of where it started, Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services or Qantas as it's known today revolutionised air travel in Australia. The inspiration for such a service came from a famous air race won by two lads from Adelaide. In 1919 Ross and Kingsford Smith and their colleagues flew a Vickers Vimy all the way from London to Darwin and beyond.
Today the famous Smith Brother's Vickers Vimy sits in a special enclosure at Adelaide Airport but back in 1919 each one of its touchdowns on Australian soil convinced more and more Aussies of the power of air travel.
"Qantas really started as a vision from Hudson Fish and Paul Matern to overcome the difficulties of travelling in the outback," said Colin. "The reason for Longreach is because that was the place they were sent to start the survey of potential landing sites for the air race from London to Australia in 1919."
Soon after that famous event, Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services had this AVRO 504K in the air bringing mail to the remotest of communities.
"They were greeted with great enjoyment and encouragement by the people from the towns along the way. To actually see their mail arriving and on time and certainly a lot quicker than if it would do if it was coming by road."
By the late 20s Qantas was combining its mail run with passenger services. It would have been a long and noisy flight down south to Adelaide but by the early 1930s planes like this one were landing north of Adelaide.
The story of the flying kangaroo's leap from AVRO 504k to Jumbo jet is told at the Qantas Founders Museum at Longreach in Queensland. We got their with the aid of passionate Adelaide pilot Dick Lang who runs regular three-day accommodated flights across the South Australian and Queensland outback.
Qantas Founders Museum
Landsborough Highway
Longreach, Queensland
Ph (07) 4658 3737
Adults $18 Children $9Desert Air
3 day accommodated flights to SA and Queensland outback.
Bookings (08) 8264 7200Published Sunday 22nd April 2007
