WAy out! - stretching to Longreach

[JohnM]

Back in March, in a fit of misplaced optimism, I thought the world was returning to normal so I started planning a heap of travel. Well, we all know how that turned out.

One booking that I did keep in place was to visit the Qantas Founders Museum in LRE. I’ve been to Winton and various other parts around there, but LRE has eluded me.

I did plan to fly PER-BNE-LRE, then LRE-BNE-CBR-MEL-PER in order to visit friends in CBR on the way home. I ditched the CBR diversion in October in favour of a direct return to PER from BNE.

Up until yesterday I was ready to hit the kill switch on the whole thing, given the Omicron frenzy, but I’m going to give it a crack.

Organising the Qld Travel Declaration Pass and a WA G2G was straightforward. The process for Qld was much simpler than for WA G2G, which wanted vaccination certificate, photo ID and ID with home address stated uploaded. Both were granted practically instantly.

It will be my first time out of St Marko’s Paradise or Mad Marko’s Madhouse, depending on one’s point of view, since January 2020. What awaits me in the Inferno on The Other Side, I wonder?…



Substituting the stygian rowboat for 1F on a QF bird out of PER this evening, I am about to find out…

 

[Buzzard]

Enjoy LRE, I did earlier this year.

 

[Bundy Bear]

I have heard the term Emperor Mcgowan and the peoples republic of Western Australia.

Watch out for the cases on the Gold Coast and Qld brought forward the opening to 13 December so be ready to flee you know what happened to SA and WA.

Landing in Brisbane will be a breeze, landing in Perth well its not so straight forward.

 

[JohnM]

I have heard the term Emperor Mcgowan and the peoples republic of Western Australia.

Watch out for the cases on the Gold Coast and Qld brought forward the opening to 13 December so be ready to flee you know what happened to SA and WA.

Landing in Brisbane will be a breeze, landing in Perth well its not so straight forward.

I’ll be out of Qld on Friday, Bundy, so I’ll beat the opening and a likely Mad Marko Moment resulting from it.

 

[JohnM]

Puttering along at about 1035kph.

Dinner was a very acceptable beef brisket with a tangy mex-style sauce and potato/corn fritters.

Praise be! No NP Rabbit Food (TM) ‘salad’. #blessed



And this was a cracking good drop.



Happy days!

 

[JohnM]

Getting nervous; watching for Migs, Sukhois and Scuds…

 

[JohnM]

Well, after a good visit to the Qantas Founders Museum and the Australian Stockmans Hall of Fame, my departure from LRE-xBNE-PER has been thrown into turmoil.

The a/c on the Dash8 failed after t/o so we returned to LRE. Can’t be fixed, so awaiting a replacement.

Edit: Correction, I had it the wrong way around. Meant ETA BNE 1930; ETD PER 1915

PER flight is the last for today.

Apparently there is another pax on this flight also connecting to PER. Hopefully they’ll hold for us.

 

[JohnM]

QF app showing PER-BNE cancelled. I assume that is applicable directly to me. That was the last flight, so it looks like an overnight in BNE.

Waiting to hear how they’ll get me back to PER.

 

[Solid]

Part of the conspiracy organised by @Daver6 to keep you there until WA closes its borders to Qld.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Part of the conspiracy organised by @Daver6 to keep you there until WA closes its borders to Qld.

I’ve alerted the QLD authorities of the brazen attempt to overstay his visa!

 

[Matt_01]

QF app showing PER-BNE cancelled. I assume that is applicable directly to me. That was the last flight, so it looks like an overnight in BNE.

Waiting to hear how they’ll get me back to PER.

Out of curiosity did QF spring for accomodation and transport, I am only interested know as I have experienced similar situations returning to AU on QF international flights. Have not experienced last flight cancellations for domestic.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Phew! Crisis averted. In response to my queries, I’ve received official communication that the visa overstayer will be held incommunicado in something called an “ibis” overnight then deported to the WAPR on the first prisoner transport in steerage at 9 am tomorrow.

 

[JohnM]

Out of curiosity did QF spring for accomodation and transport, I am only interested know as I have experienced similar situations returning to AU on QF international flights. Have not experienced last flight cancellations for domestic.

They did, but it was all a bit shambolic.

At LRE, the local manager showed me his screen which showed that the other pax to PER, a NB, had been moved to the 0900 tomorrow flight to PER. But, despite my app saying my PER flight was ‘cancelled’, he could only see me on today’s original flight. I had told him that I was HLO, so I optimistically thought maybe they will hold the PER flight for me.

That was the state of play when I boarded the substitute LRE-BNE flight, except that he said someone would meet me at BNE.

Get to BNE. It’s clear that the PER flight has gone, but nobody and no info from QF to sort me.

I ended up having to go through security to the QFLink service desk at the gates to be told that I had a room at the Ibis and a $50 meal voucher.

Turn around, go back out and trudge to the Ibis. No real worries. C’est la vie.

Get to the Ibis and join a slow checkin queue. Hanging out for a drink and something to eat by that stage.

Dump my bag and head to the resto, order my food and some wine.

Time passes… Dang, it seems my meal order has gone AWOL. Lovely server very apologetic; free glass of the wine I was drinking and the world returned to a rosy glow.

Now, what will tomorrow bring?

At this point, alI I want from Santa is to get back into the comforting arms of St Marko the Magnificent…

 

[TheRealTMA]

They did, but it was all a bit shambolic.

At LRE, the local manager showed me his screen which showed that the other pax to PER, a NB, had been moved to the 0900 tomorrow flight to PER. But, despite my app saying my PER flight was ‘cancelled’, he could only see me on today’s original flight. I had told him that I was HLO, so I optimistically thought maybe they will hold the PER flight for me.

That was the state of play when I boarded the substitute LRE-BNE flight, except that he said someone would meet me at BNE.

Get to BNE. It’s clear that the PER flight has gone, but nobody and no info from QF to sort me.

I ended up having to go through security to the QFLink service desk at the gates to be told that I had a room at the Ibis and a $50 meal voucher.

Turn around, go back out and trudge to the Ibis. No real worries. C’est la vie.

Get to the Ibis and join a slow checkin queue. Hanging out for a drink and something to eat by that stage.

Dump my bag and head to the resto, order my food and some wine.

Time passes… Dang, it seems my meal order has gone AWOL. Lovely server very apologetic; free glass of the wine I was drinking and the world returned to a rosy glow.

Now, what will tomorrow bring?

At this point, alI I want from Santa is to get back into the comforting arms of St Marko the Magnificent…

Well look on the bright side, I didn’t have to waste a bottle of FGM!

 

[JohnM]

For the record in this TR, today’s very early lunch BNE-PER. I enjoyed it,



Assuming no further events today, I shall fill in the main body of the LRE part of the TR over the next few days,

 

[JohnM]

In some ways yesterday’s glitch made the overall trip better. It was an 5h excellent ride today in daylight on a clear day with a good route.

 

[Bundy Bear]

And WA has closed the open border to Qld from Monday requiring 14 days home Quarantine.

 

[JohnM]

And WA has closed the open border to Qld from Monday requiring 14 days home Quarantine.

That was always on the cards when Qld gave a date to open. I was watching that carefully and would have pulled the pin if Qld had brought the opening back any further.

As my misadventure with the LRE-BNE bird going tech and my BNE-PER flight shifting from Friday night to Saturday shows, it is best not to run too tight to limits.

 

[JohnM]

OK, backing up from the previous online transit pics.

After overnight at BNE, I arrived in LRE about 1400h on Wednesday afternoon. Longreach is towards the top and slightly right of centre. It’s flat out there! The Founders Museum, my destination for the next day, is on the edge of the field.



I collected a rental car and visited the information centre to see what to do for the rest of the day. Longreach itself doesn’t hold a lot of attraction but Ilfracombe, 27 km east is a very tidy little town with some good history and displays. Well worth a visit.

Intuitively, I would have thought of central Queensland as mainly cattle-grazing, but this area is largely sheep-grazing and was the location of Wellshot Station, the largest sheep-raising station by numbers (almost 0.5M) in the late 19th century Ilfracombe, Queensland - Wikipedia).

The Machinery Mile is literally a mile-long (and thus pretty much the full length of the town) well-done display, interspersed with some historic buildings.

I parked at the E end of town outside the Wellshot Hotel, crossed the road (Landsborough Highway, which runs closely along the Tropic of Capricorn) and walked back W along the full Machinery Mile. I then crossed back over to make my way back via the Wellshot Centre and the swimming pool which is fed by warm water from the Great Artesian Basin.

It was hot day, so a cold xx_X at the pub went down well to finish.

 

[JohnM]

Next morning, it was out to the Founders Museum (Qantas Founders Outback Museum - Wikipedia) just after 0700 to meet my guide for my 4-hour top-of-the-wozza Platinum Tour starting at 0730 (Tours and Experiences - Qantas Founders Museum). They cater for a maximum of six on this tour, but I had it to myself. Cool!

A few early-morning pics from outside while awaiting Grant, my guide. The roof is new, being constructed last year. The aircraft previously spent many years exposed to the relentless tropical sun.