Happily driving on the completed section of the Kennedy Development Road, we continued south to Winton. Following our theme on the Coolabah tree, our first stop was the Waltzing Matilda centre. Included in the museum is a wonderful diorama with a John Williamson performance of the song. This provided a great learning experience for the kids as they learnt such words as ‘jumbuck’ and ‘trooper’. Zach enjoyed playing through a collection of the some almost 500 recordings of Waltzing Matilda and choosing his favourite versions. The big surprise was the outdoor museum, where we were able to climb aboard an old merry-go-round, train carriages and even some old ford cars. There was a countless array of collectible items from yester-year; history lovers could truly spend the whole day there.

That night, we free camped 4km out of Winton at Long Waterhole and enjoyed a campfire toasting marshmallows on the dried up riverbanks.

The following day, we travelled directly to Longreach to make the 11am show at the Stockman’s Hall of Fame. This was a brilliant show, mixed with humour and real life as a stockman. The highlight of the show was the Stockman bringing in 8 bullocks, joining them into a team and taking them out behind the grandstand to collect a timber log. The team was then guided to bring in the log and load it onto a wagon. Following the show, the kids loved being able to pat the bullocks and have some photos with them. We enjoyed a look around the museum, before heading to the Outback Grill for some delicious burgers. We were very surprised to have a couple of brolgas join us for lunch. They were truly stunning and so tall- towering above Zach!

Heading virtually across the road, we made a visit to the Qantas Founders Museum. It was amazing to walk beneath the wings of a 747 and we booked into tour it the following morning. We enjoyed exploring the museum and Zach completed his first transport assignment on the original Qantas plane. Melinda enjoyed seeing the display of past flight attendant uniforms and revisited childhood memories of first flights! It was great to watch the various model planes flying around the ceiling and the kids liked seeing the old plane parts. We also watched a Flying Doctors plane take off at the neighbouring airport.

That night, we free camped out at the Longreach Waterhole (Apex). It was quite a popular place, though it had little shade and was very dusty. It’s in these places, though, that the real camp spirit comes out. A fellow camper taught us about yabbie pots while another camper pulled out her accordion and played some tunes as the sun set. We were then invited to a campfire with a few other campers and enjoyed sharing stories, as well as sharing around our never ending supply of marshmallows.

The 747 tour the following morning was very interesting and quite surreal. We loved standing inside one of the engine and were amazed when our guide told us that new 380’s have engines that are 3 times the size of the 747. Other highlights were viewing the ‘black boxes’ (which, by the way, are orange!) as well the cockpit and the first class section.

We then drove back towards Winton and went to the Age of the Dinosaurs. Involving 11km of dirt track, the Age of the Dinosaurs in located on a ‘jump-up’ (like a flat mountain) and is a working fossil discovery centre. Our tour starts with the amazing view of Winton, followed by an amazing background to the past history of the area. We then ventured into the working fossil centre and were able to see a number of fossils, how they fit together to produce skeletons of Australian dinosaurs, as well as touch a couple of fossils and some casts. It was a very interesting tour and our guide was so passionate about his work that his enthusiasm was quite catching.

Leaving the jump-up, we slowly made our way down and back into the town of Winton. After making the all-to-common diesel stop, we headed to Arnos’s wall- an incredible concrete with everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink! The kids loved walking along it and spotting all different kinds of objects- it was quite funny, in fact! We then headed to the north area of the town and stopped at the Musical Fence. This was another fantastic use of recycling practice and actually included a drum kit, as well as a couple of other percussive set ups. There was even a boxed supply of rubber, metal and woods sticks for the kids (and us adults) to make wonderful music!

After a busy, jam-packed day, we headed west to our free camp beside the road- Wonoona Downs Rest Area.