LRE (Longreach) weekend - 26-27 Sep 2026

[jastel]

J

Thread 'QANTAS Founders Museum'

Oct 5, 2024

Recently did a 5500kms road trip out to western Qld, firstly the Dinosaur Trail, then Longreach, Qantas Museum, Stockmans Hall of Fame etc, into Brisbane to visit some friends and home. This is about the Qantas Founders Museum part of the trip.

Most Aussies probably know a bit about the history of Qantas and like me are quite proud of our iconic National Airline. I guess other people hate it just as much...you can leave now.

Paul McGinness and Wilmot Hudson Fysh were both veterans of Gallipoli when they met in the newly formed Australian Flying Corps in 1918, McGuinness was the pilot and...

• jastel
• Replies: 23
• Forum: Trip Reports

• 

A more recent Trip Report.

The Dinosaur things around Winton and Richmond are well worth seeing, but probably better on a road trip with a 4WD. Lark Quarry is about 50kms of dirt from Winton...it was good when I went in a car but it can change quickly.

The area was struggling with enough workers post covid when I went through, there were hotels with 30 rooms but only staff to open/manage 10 rooms. Hopefully it has improved by now.
Dont believe any opening times you see on the net until you get there and read the sign on the door but.

 

[Mattg]

I can't recall if @Mattg and I did a TR for our drive through the outback, but we managed to fit quite a bit into the time we had, which I think was just under a week, Brisbane to Charleville via Roma, then Charleville to Longreach via Blackall and Barcaldine, Longreach to Winton via Australian Age of Dinosaurs, Winton to Emerald (with backtracking) via Lark Quarry and then finally Emerald to Brisbane. Done in an SUV / 2WD. Unless you really want the route on your map, driving could be cheaper and allow you to see more

Looks like we did write a trip report of our 2020 road trip:

Thread 'Road trip to Outback Queensland'

Aug 5, 2020

This morning I started a journey into the outback unlike I have ever done before. Previously I have always flown everywhere I go (unsurprisingly) but on this trip I wanted to take in some of the sights in between the QantasLink route network.

Joining me on this 4-night journey is @Mattg, so I suppose this is technically a staff road trip, with him being the @AFF Editor and me being @support.

Our journey today takes us from South-East QLD, up the range to Toowoomba, through Dalby, Chinchilla and Miles, lunch at Roma and onwards to Charleville before nightfall.

• samh004
• Replies: 58
• Forum: Trip Reports

• 

Once you fly all the way to Longreach on a Dash8 might as well spend a few days and see all points of interest nearby (hey it's the outback - nearby can be a few 100 K's) - it's probably a "once and done" sort of place.

I thought so too, when I first visited Longreach in 2015. But I ended up really liking the place - as well as Winton and the surrounds - and have since been back multiple times. And I'll happily return again, if the stars align.

 

[Myrna]

Would highly recommend Longreach. In August we drove from Sydney to Cairns (took 5 days), flew to Cook Town from Cairns for the day, then started the outback touring trip to Winton (did not have time to see the Dinosaur Park), and Longreach (visited Qantas Founders Museum, did the tours; and enjoyed the Stockman Hall of Fame show). We stayed at a motel next to the Stockman Hall of Fame and right opposite the Qantas Founders Museum. We could see the red tail plane from our room. We wanted to do the river cruise in Longreach in the evening, but it was fully booked out

 

[Myrna]

In Longreach we stayed 2 nights at the Salt Bush retreat. The airport terminal is next to the museum. If flying then it is a just a walk across the road to the retreat. There is also a motel next to the retreat - it looked OK from the outside. We had breakfasts at the museum cafe - it opened at 7am (I think). There is a pub in town which provides free transfer (a van) to take people staying at the retreat for dinner. We did not take it as we had our own car.

 

[Major]

We have been back 2 weeks from a road trip Roma, Charleville, Longreach, Emerald, Yepoon.

We stayed at Home. and went on Drover’s Sunset Cruise – Outback River Adventure

Can recommend both

 

[Myrna]

We have been back 2 weeks from a road trip Roma, Charleville, Longreach, Emerald, Yepoon.

We stayed at Home. and went on Drover’s Sunset Cruise – Outback River Adventure

Can recommend both

That's the cruise we wanted to take, but it was fully booked the day we were there. Saved it for next time back to Longreach.

 

[kpc]

We stayed at Home. and went on Drover’s Sunset Cruise – Outback River Adventure

Can recommend both

We did both a few years ago....hard to believe you go on a sunset cruise at Longreach!

 

[Major]

We did both a few years ago....hard to believe you go on a sunset cruise at Longreach!

Plenty of water in the Thompson 3 weeks ago

 

[Katie]

If anyone's contemplating a side trip to Winton, IMNSHO, I'd do Age of Dinosaurs and the Waltzing Matilda centre. There's now a (less impressive than Lark Quarry) stampede at AAOD, so you don't have to go to Lark Quarry unless you really want to.

If you drive to Winton after the flight from Longreach, there may not be enough time to get to AAOD and give it a decent go; there's about 3-4 different areas now in the full tour. Most of my recent LRE flights have arrived in the afternoon; we get a car, go to the Merino Bakery and Cornett's for supplies, then drive to Winton, which is ~2 hrs.

AAOD warrants at least 3-4 hrs.

We went to Lark Quarry about 7 or 8 years ago, but went with a tour group on a day trip that also visited an opal mining area. That particular week there'd been rain and the council was recommending only those with 4WDs to drive on the Lark Quarry road. Big road trains had been through and dug up the road.

There's also the Musical Fence, cairn for Qantas's Centenary nearby, a machinery museum, Arno's wall. Searle's menstore is always fascinating - everythign from knitting needles to Akubras to bullets. During the tourist season, the Royal Theatre has movies at night for movies under the stars - if you visit on a Nostalgia night, you might even see me on the big screen!