- And we’re off — let’s go explore the Australian outback!
- Katherine, Northern Territory
- Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory
- A day in Darwin, Northern Territory
- Kununurra, Western Australia and the Bungle Bungles
- Broome, Western Australia
- Uluru (Ayers Rock)
- Alice Springs, Northern Territory
- Birdsville, Queensland and return to Sydney
Our last trip in Australia was probably the most amazing — a 13 day “air cruise” around Australia’s outback. Essentially, this is 20 passengers flying around the outback in a Dash 7 which is a short take-off and landing aircraft that doesn’t need a runway. I guess a bit of background is in order. The tour company (Bill Peach Journeys) used to be the largest purveyor of Australian tours for Americans. After September 11, 2001, Americans stopped traveling (especially to foreign destinations). That sudden drop-off in American tourists nearly tanked the business until they decided to re-brand themselves. Now they market to Australian retirees with the marketing pitch of “Come see your country!” Anyway, to help push that promotion, they offered some air cruises on a luxury travel auction website we used for several other trips and were the only bid on the trip (half off what the rest of the passengers paid full price). Our two Bill Peach guides (Louise and Michelle — who would become our good buddies) warned us not to mention what we paid for our trip to any of the other passengers or there might be a riot! After a stress free check-in at a private airport in Sydney, we were off!
Our first stop was in Longreach, in the heart of the outback in Queensland. The town has a population of about 3000 people and got its name from the “long reach” of the Thomson River on the banks of which is the town. Here we visited two unlikely places — the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and the Quantas Founders Museum. In the first case, the museum pays homage to what are seen as the great unsung heroes in Australian history — the stockmen and Aborigines that helped pioneer this bush country. It was interesting — there seemed to be a simmering resentment of the worldwide fame of the Old American West, the cowboys, etc., while they feel forgotten. The guides were quick to point out all of the comparative exemplars of the Australian stockmen (e.g., more cattle, more range, harsher conditions). We smiled and kept walking… Actually, both the building and the exhibits were all excellent and very informative. Sadly, we didn’t have time to attend the stockman’s live show (essentially a rodeo) to compare techniques.
From there we went to the Qantas Founders Museum. This seemed an unlikely place for a museum celebrating Australia’s national airline until you find out that the name is an acronym of Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services. As the third oldest airline still in operation in the world, Qantas was founded in 1920 and moved its headquarters to Longreach the following year. The museum itself is huge, with most of the aircraft types flown by the airline being represented there. The most impressive, of course, was the first 747 owned by Qantas. What makes this amazing was that the aircraft actually landed here on a runway that was too short and narrow for it. To accomplish that feat, they stripped the aircraft down to what was necessary to fly and only put a little fuel on it. Needless to say, after landing, it could never leave again. That evening we had a welcome dinner for the air cruise. I mentioned that there were only 20 passengers, but I should probably describe them — they were all Australians and at least 10 years older than us (one of the passengers had been in a Burmese prison camp in WWII!). They were also from all walks of life and points of view. We even had one woman who traveled alone that looked and acted like Mrs. Howell from Gilligan’s Island. Needless to say, they were quite curious about us. One of the couples at our table asked where we were from and we replied by asking them where they thought we were from. After a lot of discussion amongst themselves, they responded that they thought we were Canadian. We asked them how they came to that conclusion and they responded that we didn’t try to dominate the conversation and actually listened so we couldn’t possibly be American. Oops!
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
