One degree of separation to Winton royalty

[craven morehead]

Now that thread title has you all wondering. I'm also sure that some locals might not consider my description of said family as local royalty but gee everyone out there sure knows the Evert's.

I started working with Bill Evert's grandson 27 years ago and my friend Ian's mum Maurs is a bloody legend. Ian has kept saying to us when are you going to Winton, and we had it all planned and paid for when my colon decided it was time to leave the premises in 2023. Three years later, over the same early May weekend, we gave it a second, successful, try.

Bill bought the Royal Theatre back in 1937. He also owned the Central Hotel. The Evert family still owns the pharmac_ and were pioneers in the boulder opal industry. If you've seen Evert jewellery stores in Cairns that's them too. It was time to check this history out.

Four nights. Three in Winton and one in Longreach. Stayed at the North Gregory (of course) and in Longeach at Saltbush Retreat due to it's proximity to the the airport and Qantas Founders Museum. Car hire through Avis. Qantas Founders Museum Premium Economy tickets including wing walk.

I have a love hate with Q400s, and prop planes in general. I love the intimacy of them but hate that big propeller spinning right outside my window.

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coming in to Blackall

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leaving Blackall. Quite a few people got off and quite a few got on. The get on people were all going back to Brisbane. The plane doesn't stop at Blackall on the way back.

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Small wagon booked but upgraded to a Mitsubishi Outlander. A nice car but bigger than we needed or wanted. The cruise control was beyond our capabilities, and we've worked out a lot of them over the years.

On the way from Longreach to Winton

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not a roo, or any other wildlife spotted on any of our drives

The North Gregory Hotel is a Winton institution About – North Gregory Hotel. It wasn't cheap but it was pretty basic. Lovely staff. The bed was comfier than it looked. In 1895, in a different iteration of the pub, Waltzing Matilda was performed in public for the first time.

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The Royal Theatre wasn't too far away. These from the verandah outisde our room

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beer o'clock

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they were setting up Banjo's Beer Garden for the Outback Trail The Outback. Sadly, numbers attending were way less than hoped for. I found out the next morning that I had zero degrees of separation from the event.

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we thought that this was the entire menu at the hotel

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and nothing really appealed so we wandered down the street to Tattersalls

outback sunset

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The Royal Theatre

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quietly sitting having dinner and we started talking to a lady selling raffle tickets. Said this was our first time in town. Next minute the bloke at the table next to us says "you wouldn't be Pete and Al?" and I looked at him and said "um, yes". Turns out this was the manager of the Royal Theatre and Ian had contacted him and said to look out for us. Scary!

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How good is Saltbush Retreat Love that place

 

[bPeteb]

Details of our cruise on the Thomson. Different price again. I'll update eventually with what we paid. Maybe it was this.



Before we dropped the car off on Monday we went to the IGA to get supplies for breakfast. Nothing close by to walk to have breakfast Tuesday morning.

Our cool little 'donga' at Saltbush



nice pool




Yet again we didn't research so instead of heading over to the Qantas Founders Museum Qantas Founders Museum much earlier (anytime after 9am) so we could have actually looked around the museum, we wandered over 15 minutes before our 11.30 ticket time. The fellow who checked us in said we had a few minutes to look around before he started our tour. He also asked when our flight was as the wing walk would potentially still be underway when we needed to leave. Gahhhhhhhhhhhhh

So for 15 minutes we did race around and then the premium economy tour began. I know a lot of you have been. I'm not sure about anyone else but I will just say when we go back to Longreach we'll do it all again.

Looking at the website what we booked as Y+ plus Wing Walk is now called First Class ResPax

Well of course



out into the open air museum. BRILLIANT!

 

[bPeteb]

Mum took us to the UK in Feb 1979. I turned 16 while I was there.

Fares to the UK had been beyond our finances but Qantas dropped fares down to under $500 return. Mum cashed in some saving thing my brother and I had and off we went.

Who knows, it could have been in this same plane, or this could be the one we came home on.

Weirdly, the return 747 had a fifth engine bolted under it's wing, just like the Longreach example has been mocked up to have.

 

[bPeteb]

Kinda grossed out that Michael Jackson flew on the 707



Then it was wing walk time. Those who hadn't paid were let out of the secure area and those of us who had reboarded the 747



such an amazing experience for plane nerds



Wer'd walked first knowing we were running short of time and once we'd got our saftey gear off we thanked our guide and headed back to the museum to grab our bags. The only issue is that it had closed!! Luckily two volunteers appeared out of another building and took us in through the staff entrance to get them. Phew!

 

[bPeteb]

We knew that we didn't have to check in our bags but we did in any case. Saved hanging on to them at the gate. There was some confusion as to which gate we were going out of and people kept walking backwards and forwards between the two. We couldn't be bothered and just waited until it was called. It ended up being the one we'd stood near.



Seats 1A/B home.



we had no idea we were taking a picture of where we'd be living just under two months later when this picture of West End was snapped



We'll absolutely go back to Winton and Longreach. Next time we'll drive, in our electric car, or maybe an electric campervan.

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

 

[VPS]

I have bookmarked this trip and will put it on the list for next year. Thanks again for a great TR

 

[drron]

That IMHO was your best TR. So much personal stuff and experience you can’t have any where else in the world. We really love the outback of QLD and have been to Winton a few times as Mrsdrron is an opal lover. Though our favourite is Thargomindah. Just old time Australians. At dinner- have you got a wine list. No just go to the fridge and get yourself one.
So thanks and hopefully we can get back to Winton too.. Might drop your names.

 

[JohnM]

I have bookmarked this trip and will put it on the list for next year. Thanks again for a great TR

There's U bucket availibility (1 seat) on every ADL-BNE flight on a few random days I looked at in late May.

I found that there was plenty of X availability BNE-LRE at that time.

 

[bPeteb]

That IMHO was your best TR. So much personal stuff and experience you can’t have any where else in the world. We really love the outback of QLD and have been to Winton a few times as Mrsdrron is an opal lover. Though our favourite is Thargomindah. Just old time Australians. At dinner- have you got a wine list. No just go to the fridge and get yourself one.
So thanks and hopefully we can get back to Winton too.. Might drop your names.

Thank you so much Ron!

 

[VPS]

There's U bucket availibility (1 seat) on every ADL-BNE flight on a few random days I looked at in late May.

I found that there was plenty of X availability BNE-LRE at that time.

I’ve been trying to work out how to use up some AA Miles so this might be it or just use my QFF ones. I just need to make sure there aren’t any other unsavoury characters from W.A. at the same time as I go

 

[jastel]

You can also go up to Hughenden, Muttaburra, Richmond, then loop back via Julia Creek and McKinlay (Crocodile Dundee Pub) for more dinosaurs.

Lark Quarry Dinosaurs is also quite good 100kms from Winton but about half dirt road...I did it in a sedan but check conditions.