Explore Outback Queensland
Unlike many other western towns, LONGREACH, right on the Tropic of Capricorn, is more than surviving. The lynchpin for this is the ambitious Stockman’s Hall of Fame museum, but the town was also one of the first to realize the potential of tapping Queensland’s artesian water reserves for stock farming, and was the original headquarters of Qantas.
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Stockman's Hall of Fame
Stockman's Hall of Fame
The Stockman’s Hall of Fame is a masterpiece not just in architectural design – it’s a blend of aircraft hangar and cathedral – but in being an encyclopedia of the Outback. Displays unashamedly romance the Outback through film footage, multimedia presentations, photographs and exhibits. History starts in the Dreamtime and moves on to early European explorers and pioneers (including a large section on women in the Outback), before ending with personal accounts of life in the bush. There’s also an exciting Stockman’s Show – where famed drover Luke Thomas heads a team of performing horses and working bullocks.
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Qantas
Qantas
Though Qantas (the Queensland and Northern Territories Aerial Service) officially formed at Winton, the first joy-flights and taxi service actually flew from Longreach in 1921, pioneered by Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness. Their idea – that an airline could play an important role by carrying mail and passengers, dropping supplies to remote districts and providing an emergency link into the Outback – inspired other projects such as the Flying Doctor Service. Though the company’s headquarters moved to Brisbane in 1930, Qantas maintained its offices at Longreach until after World War II – during the war US Flying Fortresses were stationed here – by which time both the company and its planes had outgrown the town.
