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Longreach was 214km away, a journey we expected to complete easily as we had two stops planned, one at Barcaldine for lunch, the other at Ilfracombe for afternoon smoko. Barcaldine was about an hour and a half “up the road” and we had picked up a number of cooked chooks and lovely fresh bread etc from the local IGA and intended to have chicken sandwiches for lunch. “Kiwi” Campbell and Sue Trimmer headed off early in the ute with all the food with the intention of setting up at the Barcaldine Recreation Park on the lake and having lunch ready for us when we arrived.

Things didn’t go quite as planned.

We know they are damn good at Rugby Union, but for some reason Kiwis aren’t all that au fait when looking for a large body of water. Kiwi and Sue set up shop in a small shelter in a field beside the very busy Landsborough Highway with traffic roaring past every minute. But it didn't matter as they did an excellent job with the sangas which all disappeared very quickly.

After lunch we decided we’d go and have a look at the Rec Park anyway as someone thought they sold ice creams there - we went and they did.

After a short spell, it was back onto the scooters and off to Ilfracombe. We were now back on familiar territory having completed this part of the journey last year. On the scooters, Ilfracombe is only an hour away from Barcaldine and is well known for its machinery mile and more to our liking, the Wellshot Hotel.

Years past, when Ilfracombe was the centre of huge sheep stations, it had 3 hotels. The Wellshot, which was built in 1890, is the only one left. Another at the time was the Railway. The Wellshot began life as the Withersfield hotel near Anakie, a small town situated east of Emerald and once known for its gemstones. (We visited Anakie last year too). It was transported to Ilfracombe by bullock and cart in 1890 and renamed the Wellshot.

Owned now by Tracy Hatch, it’s one of our favourites, we had a few nights at the Ilfracombe sports ground last year and got to know the wonderful staff and the hotel reasonably well. It was like coming home again.

We parked our bus out the front and set aside an hour or so in which to get to know the place again.

The Wellshot is well known for its most flattering bar stools. Marium Dietzel shows us why!

Then after “Johnno” had done the rounds and replenished his bucket it was time to press on, Longreach being only a further 27 km west.

We were given a huge pavilion at Longreach, thanks to their generous Council and this allowed us to spread out a bit. Very soon all you could hear was the sound of beds being pumped up, then with gear unpacked, bed sites made up, toilet and shower blocks examined, it was time to take a breather. We’d planned two nights (Wednesday and Thursday) in Longreach as there was a lot to see and do.  

Gavin Ballard, the owner of the Birdcage Hotel, had offered to provide us with an evening meal and some fund-raising fun afterwards, so that’s where we headed that night. The meal was excellent but the expected crowds didn’t eventuate but with Merv’s help we did raise some money for our cause.

Next morning we had been given the OK for a tour of the Jindalee Operational Radar Network site (JORN) which is about 30km south of Longreach.

JORN is a connected series of three remote over-the-horizon radars one of which is located in Queensland, the other two are in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

This state-of-the-art defence system provides wide-area surveillance at ranges of 1,000 to 3,000 kilometres and plays a vital role in supporting the Australian Defence Force’s air and maritime operations, border protection, disaster relief and rescue operations. JORN works by refracting high-frequency electromagnetic waves off the ionosphere to 'see' objects thousands of kilometres away that are invisible to conventional radars because of the curvature of the earth.

JORN is controlled and operated by the Air Force from the Battlespace Surveillance Centre at its once sleepy little Rookies training base at Edinburgh in South Australia.  Each “site” comprises a transmitter site with a receiver site some distance away. We were to have a look over the transmitter site. While of interest to some of us, a few decided they would rather stay in Longreach and watch the grass grow, so we split into two groups, one onto the bus and down to the JORN site, the other did the shops.

Greg Mead from BAE which operates the site, gave us an excellent look through the workings, after which we were treated to a sumptuous lunch in their rec room. Technology has come a long way since we worked with 6BM8s.

JORN is a typical FIFO site with the crews spending 2 weeks on the job and a week home. The transmitter people are lucky in that they have only a 30km road trip to the airport whereas the receiver crews are a further 130km “down the road”.

We left the JORN site at 1.00pm as we had to get back to Longreach as sadly Merv was leaving us today. He had work commitments in Brisbane next day so had to be on the 2.30pm Longreach/Brisbane Qantas Link flight.

Prior to seeing him leave, Neil Snudden and Ros Curran snuck in one last photo.

Then it was time. We loaded the bus and those that couldn’t find a seat grabbed a scooter and we headed for the airport.

As far as we were concerned, over the past few days Merv had transitioned from an “Australian legend” to a friend. He always found time to chat with us, always helped raise funds for our cause and was always the gentleman and was never flustered by people asking for an autograph or a “selfie”.

He was always happy to oblige, always with a big smile.

Great bloke!

We hope he can find time to join us next year when we hold the event in Queensland and in NSW.

With the Qantas Link Bombardier heading south, we headed back to our lodgings as tonight was to be a big night too. We’d booked an evening’s river cruise on the Thomson River (no PEE in Thomson) with Outback Pioneers. Later in the afternoon they sent their large bus to pick us up then transport us a few km out of town where we were all loaded onto one of their boats and had a great cruise up and down the river where they served cheese and bikkies and we served Powers and Great Northern.

The Paddle-wheel tourist boat of the other company.

After the cruise it was back to Outback Pioneer's depot on the river to watch a movie, to hear a bunch of well told bush yarns then to enjoy some bush tucker - all in great surroundings, then after we’d heard a bunch of yarns, had our fill, had a good look around, it was time to hop back on the bus and head for “home”. This was out last night in Longreach, tomorrow it was off to Winton

Next morning it was up, have breakfast, a SSSSS, let the beds down, pack the truck and head off. The day before we’d arranged to pick up supplies before we left as it’s 180km up to Winton and that’s 180km of not an awful lot. From our trip last year we knew of a rest area about half way so we once again asked “Kiwi” and Sue to head off early with all the supplies and have lunch ready for when we arrived. This they did and we lunched in comfort.

We arrived Winton only to find the promised pavilion wasn’t available as it had been declared “non-safe” for camping due to fire restrictions. Luckily the Winton weather was perfect, so we set up home under a large awning at the showground and bunked down “out in the open”. As we still had access to showers and toilets and a kitchen area in which to “fix” breakfast, it wasn’t a problem.

That evening the Winton Council had arranged a street closure and Mayor Gavin Basket and Helen Fogarty, the Council’s Family Support Officer, donned the aprons, fired up the barby and set about rolling hundreds of snags.

There were quite a number of people in town that night and Johnno scored well with the bucket.

Council had arranged for local band “The Generation Gap” to entertain us and entertain us they did. Set up in the main street they were damn good and played into the night and had most people up on their feet. At one stage our WOD along with Dave Pedler conned the band into playing the Nutbush which got nearly everyone nutbushing. We're thinking the Nut Bush could rear its head in future Scootaville events.

Ros Curran and Neil Snudden got in the mood and danced the night away.

Next day, Saturday, was going to be long and hard. The road between Winton and Cloncurry is 350 km long, straight and even could be described as a bit boring. The country out there is as flat as a tack and there isn’t a lot to see. 350km in a comfortable air conditioned car, with cruise control and the radio going is not all that bad, but on a 110cc motor scooter, with a fuel tank providing a range of 220km, it is a damn long way.

Luckily we were able to divide the trip into quarters, there were 2 very interesting hotels along the way, spaced 100km or so apart and there was a welcome rest area about 65km from Winton which had been set up next to a strange and lonely bunch of hills.

We set off early on the Saturday morning with 40 litres of fuel in drums on the back of the ute and planned to stop at each.

Once again, we asked Kiwi and Sue to head off first and asked them to set up morning smoko at the rest area. When we got there mid-morning, the billy was boiling, the biscuits and fresh fruit were set out on the table, cups, tea and coffee was ready and we tucked in.

The rest area, between Winton and Cloncurry, is called the Ayrshire Hills Rest Area. In the middle of a huge flat area, there are several ancient eroded hills covered in stunted Gidgee trees. Most people just stop out of curiosity, in the middle of dead flat country, why and how are they there? They look like they are the remains of long gone small volcanoes.

Click the pic below to see a video of the area - video from Neil Snudden's trusty little drone.

After we'd had our fill, satisfied nature's wants, packed up and loaded the ute again, it was time to head to our next stop which was the Blue Heeler Hotel, a further 100km up the straight as a die, but good surface road.

The Blue Heeler Hotel in Kynuna is an 1860s staging post for Cobb and Co. coaches and has a rich history immortalised in the famous Australian ballad Waltzing Matilda as it is here, it is claimed, that the bush poet Banjo Paterson first performed the tune, a claim however shared 180Km down the road at Winton’s North Gregory Hotel.

Folklore has it that the owner of nearby Dagworth Station, Bob Macpherson, told Banjo about the suicide of the shearer Samuel Hoffmeister beside the Combo Waterhole, 22km south east of the pub. It is said Hoffmeister had a last drink at the Blue Heeler. This story inspired Paterson to write “Waltzing Matilda”. A sign on the wall declares the Blue Heeler to be the place where the song was first performed.

Inside the Blue Heeler, with the Banjo Patterson story on the far wall. “Johnno” Saunders the photographer.

Click HERE to read the sign.

Every wall in the pub contains someone’s name. The idea being you pay a few dollars to the publican, he/she gives you a special pen, you find a clear spot and write your name. The money goes to the flying doctor.

A few months ago we’d called into the hotel on our last “check” drive and had spoken with the owners and organised a light snack for us when we arrived. Unfortunately, in the time period between back then and when we arrived on Saturday 02 Sept, the hotel had been sold and the old owner forgot to pass on the info of our arrival to the new owner. Didn’t matter, we all bought a drink, had a good look around, changed riders, refuelled the scooters then hit the road for the next stop, the “Walkabout Creek” hotel at McKinlay, 75km further NW.

This historic pub, which was built in 1900 and licensed in 1901, was once the Federal Hotel and stood closer to the highway – see below.

When it was chosen as the hotel for the movie Crocodile Dundee, it was temporally renamed “The Walkabout Creek” hotel then shortly after the movie became a box office hit (1986) the pub was sold for $290 000 and permanently renamed and promoted as the town's tourist attraction. It was shifted from its original site to where it is today in the mid-1990s.

For lunch we’d previously organised a pie and chips so as to soothe Jillian O’Toole’s cravings, we weren’t disappointed, then after lunch, it was back on with the jacket and helmet, back on the scooters, a final pic in front of the hotel and it was off, another 100km down the road to Cloncurry

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