Longreach

Arrived here at Longreach at the beginning of afternoon teatime at the caravan park which was set up right beside our site, so we joined in with a very, let’s say interesting, bunch of people.
We stayed 2 nights and were able to take in a few sites, including the Stockmans hall of fame, the Longreach school of distance education (school of the air) and a sunset paddle steamer down the Thomson river with a camp fire dinner, a short movie and some bush poetry. A very entertaining evening with a local station family and their crew who run the tours.
The school of the air was interesting and fantastic to see and learn about how they run and how the station children receive their education. They put on a musical every second year and have 4-6 sessions at the school which last for several days. It can involve the whole family. They run Kinder through to year 12 but do the senior years in combination with other schools of the air so that they can offer a range of subjects. Many students also leave during their secondary education to attend a boarding school. Most of the bigger regional areas have boarding schools as well as Brisbane and some children attend interstate boarding schools.
At the Stockman’s hall of fame we watched a 20 minute movie about the history of farming, stockmen and droving, in Australia. We walked through the hall of fame and then attended a show which combined a bit of country music, comedy, very well trained stock and was run by an entertainer/horse trainer. A very entertaining and informative time.Read more