Longreach to Winton

Left Longreach quite late; around 9.45, and drove for about 2 hours to a rest area just 45 km short of Winton at Crawford Creek. It is a nice clean area, bitumen parking well off the road with good clean toilets.
We collected some wood and we are going to have a fire tonight, the first for our trip.
We went for a walk along the railway track which is quite near to the rest area and collected a couple more pieces of wood. Hiroe did an inspection of the rail track.

Noticed an unusual yellow flower – don’t know what it is called, but took a photo anyway.
We had our first campfire tonight - it was wonderul sitting around and having a chat and a drink or 2.

This morning we drove a long way (45 km) to Winton and managed to get 2 free sites behind the North Gregory Hotel. This is a great campspot right in the centre of town with toilets and free showers.
After registering we walked around town where we had a look at the famous Arno's wall.

Then had a look at The Winton Club. This is where the very first Board Meeting of QANTAS took place.

We visited the Information Centre, Took a photo of the Banjo Patterson Statue.

Then did a little shopping, fruit and veg plus a new 7 pin plug for the van and then had lunch after which we went for a drive around the “Route of the Gum River” Self Drive Tour of about 50 km. It was an extremely interesting couple of hours. We visited all of the places of interest along the way;
Long Waterhole which is man made and was once used during the Outback Festival as the site for the biennial World Crayfish Derby. There were a lot of caravans and motorhomes out here.

Next stop was at a memorial built in remembrance of the Shearers Strikes of 1891 and 1894.

We visited the Bladensburgh National Park and the site of the old Homestead which is now the park headquarters.

We continued on to the Claypans and Engine Hole which was once the site of a brickworks.

On to the ‘Little Jump Up where we took a photo of where we had come from.

Next to Skull Hole which is where a massacre of Aboriginals in retaliation for the murder of a teamster took place. The tribe was massacred here.

We had afternoon tea at Bough Shed Crossing where there were a few campers set up. Then over the solid rock bottom crossing of Surprise Creek before returning to Winton. Showers were the order of the day and we had dinner tonight in the hotel.