To 22-May-06 (Charters Towers Q to Winton Q)

The countryside is surprisingly green out here and it has rained most places we’ve been.


CAPELLA Qld (Capella Van Park)
What a great place – very friendly young proprietors, a happy hour to meet other campers and a Bowling Club next door which served well priced meals for the local miners. Excellent food, good company and we were glad that we followed the recommendations of people on the track and stayed in this park.


BARCALDINE Qld (Barcaldine Tourist Van Park)
Had trouble pronouncing this place name (it’s BAR – CALL – DIN just in case you’re visiting and want to sound like a local).



We stopped at the “Tree of Knowledge” next to the railway station where a shearers’ strike saw the start of an organization in 1891 which went on to become the Australian Labor Party.













LONGREACH (with Scott & Belinda)
We really enjoyed our 9 days staying with Scott & Belinda. We also appreciated their willingness to have us stay because they arrived in Longreach just 6 weeks before we dropped in. Rhonda had also been starting to miss family and so it was really good to spend quality time with loved ones here. It was also great to see that they are living in such a nice town and being provided for so well.



Scott & Belinda took us for a run on the Thompson River in their speed boat. It didn’t take long to travel many kilometers and his brother Glenn’s good work with the boat and motor was much appreciated.








Then we took a much more sedate trip on the Thompson River Belle paddle-wheeler cruise with Scott & Belinda and enjoyed a beautiful sunset across the water, a camp meal, songs and some bush poetry.





Scott loves fishing and likes to spend quiet times some mornings on the riverbank. We went looking for Yellowbellies – said to be a delicious fish. Sadly (or luckily), they remained elusive.






One must visit the Stockman’s Hall of Fame if in Longreach and so visit we did! We were lucky to see a drover’s display with horses, sheep and “Ice”, the border collie who reminded us so much of Sasha. We roamed through the interesting display for ages (also enjoyed some very filling tucker from the cafeteria too – can recommend it!).

We also checked out the Boeing 747 on display at Longreach airport – it is fascinating to see what is behind panels, the pilot’s controls, etc., etc. Rhonda had to prise Spencer from the plane!
A visit to Longreach School of Distance Education or LSODE (previously the School of the Air) came next. They use phone lines instead of radio for communicating now and, sadly for some, the excuse “Sorry teacher, I missed that question due to static.” is no longer available. We were very impressed with the quality, scope and community there.


This is where Scott & Belinda are ministering. We shared a happy Sunday morning (Mother’s Day) service with them and were delighted to see how God has blessed the congregation with many mature Christians, excellent musicians, enthusiastic people, premises and, of course, Scott & Belinda.





WINTON Qld (Matilda Country Tourist Park)
Milton Taylor is a bush poet and shared poems and yarns around the Caravan Park campfire each night. He has won many awards and was very entertaining, so much so that we went along on 2 consecutive nights.

This is also Banjo Paterson country out here and so we visited the Waltzing Matilda Centre and Museum – a very impressive display of the times with many reminders of the early days.

We also enjoyed a fascinating expedition to the Dinosaur Stampede Trackway where they have uncovered the tracks of many little (chicken-sized) dinosaurs running one way and the tracks of a much larger version going the opposite direction. We also picked up a few kilograms of locust passengers on the 230k (mostly dirt road) trip there and back




Until next update, stay well, keep safe and take care of each other. May God bless you each one.


With best wishes,



Spencer & Rhonda


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