The 6 day Legendary Longreach and Winton Tour offered “city slickers” like us a good taste of the Queensland Outback.
My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our 6 day “ Legendary Longreach and Winton Tour” with Outback Aussie Tours in October 2022, incorporating three nights in Longreach and 2 nights in Winton. We travelled by air to Emerald from Brisbane, then it was all aboard the “Spirit of the Outback” train to Longreach with return to Brisbane from Longreach also on the Spirit of the Outback.
What made the trip so special was not only the comprehensive array of local attractions visited, as evidenced by my summary later in this review, but also the tour personnel on board the bus. Danny, the bus driver was very courteous and a very careful driver and he made sure his passengers’ needs were attended to. For the Winton leg of the tour Danny was joined by Janet who proved to be a super tour guide with very caring qualities. When together Danny and Janet came across as a dynamic duo and they complimented each other splendidly. One could not have asked for better tour personnel.
As well as anticipating the excitement of seeing new and interesting tourist attractions on a tour, the choice of accommodation is equally paramount to any tour's success. To this end, Outback Aussie Tours excelled. The next two paragraphs describe briefly our two accommodation places that they selected.
Our excellent “Outback luxury” accommodation in Longreach was Saltbush Retreat, adjacent to the Qantas Founders’ Museum, just out of the main town centre, around 1.8 kilometres away. We stayed in one of the Slab Huts, which also gave us access to a soak in one of their three renowned “claw foot” baths. In my separate review of this accommodation I made the observation that the Slab Huts are beautifully constructed to create a very good facsimile of an early settler’s home, with a modern twist. They are self catering with plentiful provisions waiting for us on arrival for our three night stay. This place proved the ideal base for day trips around Longreach.
Also pleasing was our 2 night’s accommodation at Winton – The Boulder Opal Motor Inn. It has very roomy and clean and tidy motel units with a comfortable bed, adequate bathroom facilities and basic but purposeful furnishings. On our last night of our tour the manager/owners put on a splendid farewell dinner for the tour group which was well received by all. I have also reviewed this accommodation separately.
The following is a brief summary of the places and attractions visited ( many I have reviewed separately), which hopefully will give readers an idea of the wide variety of things to see and do in this Outback region.
Touring day 1
To kick start our first day of touring, our group had an informative visit to the Longreach School of Distance Education (LSODE). Here we received an overview of distance education in the bush, with a short video presentation and a tour of classrooms to view the school’s extensive facilities. We gained a keen appreciation that distance is not a barrier to providing good child education. LSODE is one of sixteen distance education schools in Australia and one of seven in Queensland. This was a very worthwhile visit.
Next we visited a Longreach tourist icon – The Stockman’s Hall of Fame. Highlights included the magnificent timber cathedral like interior ceiling; the retired vintage Queen Air plane used by the Royal Flying Doctor Service suspended from that ceiling; the many interesting displays throughout the tour depicting the Australian stockmen and their daily lives and interesting stories. There was an outstanding 20 minute cinematic experience of learning about the birth of a Nation through the eyes of the Australian Stockman, on a 16 metre screen in the Hall’s Cinema and the impressive outdoor Stockman’s live show featuring Lachie Cossor was an experience not to be missed.
After an enjoyable lunch at the Branch Café Bar Restaurant and some free time in downtown Longreach, our busy first day ended with a classic Thomson River Drovers Sunset Cruise which culminated in an excellent two-course table service dinner under the stars at Smithy’s Outback Dinner & Show. The show featuring local country music artist Corinne Ballard was delightful. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and we gave it a big “thumbs up”.
Touring day 2
Due to poor ground conditions, our scheduled visit to Rosebank Station had to be cancelled, so instead day 2 began with a most enjoyable visit to the charming township of Ilfracombe, 27 kilometres east of Longreach. We enjoyed a great visit to the historic Wellshot Hotel and a lovely stroll along the Machinery Mile – showcasing a range of equipment from standing engines, old trucks tractors to earthmoving machinery. It’s a novel way to display machinery of yesteryear, with many exhibits quite rare and all collected within 150 kilometres of the town – and it puts Ilfracombe on the map.
Back in Longreach, it was on to the Qantas Founders’ Museum. Here we were inspired by the wonderful story of the founding of Qantas, Australia’s respected international airline. Tours of the interiors of a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet, a Constellation and a Boeing 707 were very informative. After a nice sandwich lunch in their cafeteria we then visited the original 1921 Qantas Hanger admiring replicas of the first aircraft used by the company.
Finally for day 2 we had what to my mind was a ‘stand out’ on the entire tour – a visit to Camden Park Sheep Station. Here we were joined by Outback Dan on a personalised tour of his family property, sunset drinks at Two Tree Hill, followed by a country style dinner in their 100-year-old woolshed. Lyn (Dan’s Mum) and Dan’s wife Brooke also played important roles in making this visit so special. This was good old fashioned country hospitality at its best. For us it was most memorable.
Touring day 3
It was all aboard the bus for the 2 hour drive to Winton, 180 kilometres north-west of Longreach.
First attraction was the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton – Here we enjoyed the story behind Australia’s unofficial national anthem “Waltzing Matilda”. It is one of the few museums around that is dedicated to a song. I had visited this Centre with my younger son previously in 2002 and it was understandably much better back then. It was a first visit for my wife. However, during the intervening years in June 2015 the Centre experienced a major fire and lost many precious and irreplaceable “Waltzing Matilda” artefacts. It is therefore a wonderful “Phoenix rising from the Ashes” story and testament to the Centre’s tenacity to carry on in the face of such adversity. That they have been able to retain a new set of exhibits that still offers great appeal is awe inspiring.
Following lunch at the historic Tattersalls’ Hotel we walked to the North Gregory Hotel to admire the magnificent Daphne Mayo etched glass windows and doors. Also we thoroughly enjoyed an impromptu rendition of “Waltzing Matilda” played by tour guide Janet on an old piano placed at the very spot where Banjo Paterson is reputed to have composed this iconic Australian song. This was followed by a walk to the quirky “Arno’s Wall” – an interesting array of old assorted household items all etched in concrete and rock from the Opalton Opal Mine in a long 70 metre wall. It is well worth a look.
To complete day 3 it was dinosaur discovery time with our afternoon and evening visit to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs, 22 kilometres south east of Winton. Here we were given a guided interpretive tour of the laboratory, collection room and Dinosaur Canyon. Worth seeing was the March of the Titanosaurs exhibition housing Australia’s best-preserved sauropod tracks and two life-sized bronze sauropods at the exhibition entrance.
The Age of Dinosaurs Centre is perched on a spectacular mesa (a wide, flat, elevated landform with steep sides) and at a fabulous sunset barbeque dinner organised for us by the Age of Dinosaurs catering staff, the sheer beauty of this spectacular landform became apparent.
Touring Day 4
Our last day of full touring offered something really special – a visit to Carisbrooke Station following the scenic Cory’s Range drive to the spectacular Three Sisters rock formation. What can I say – absolutely awesome. The bus found a nice spot where we could all enjoy a cup of genuine “billy tea” and fruit cake, and try our hand at finding an opal or two.
Following our “billy tea" stop, we were captivated by the second leg of the Tour's Winton dinosaur discovery component, the renowned “Dinosaur Stampede” at Lark Quarry Conservation Park. Here we witnessed the world’s only recorded dinosaur stampede featuring over 3000 footprints frozen in time in ancient mudflats.
Returning to Winton, with some spare time up our sleeves, driver Dan let us roam around the fascinating Willie Marr Fruit and Vegetable Shop and Chinese market garden, which was an added bonus not on the original itinerary. However it was so good that it should be included for future tours. The place has been essentially left as is, since Willie passed away, but is maintained by a group of enterprising local enthusiasts and it is an excellent representation of the influence of the Chinese in early Queensland through their market gardens. Thank you Outback Aussie Tours for adding this wonderful bonus on our tour.
As can be appreciated from the above summary of places and attractions visited, the staff at Outback Aussie Tours have gone out of their way to provide “city slickers” such as my wife and I from Brisbane, a good taste of the Queensland Outback. We highly recommend the Legendary Longreach and Winton Tour. Or, if travelling under your own steam, we recommend that you make sure you don’t miss booking up many of these attractions yourself.
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Longreach
Pickup offered
Mobile Ticket
Offered in: English
4 hours 30 minutes
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