Day 7 - QANTAS Museum
It was with great anticipation on our part to finally get our Longreach plans on track. First up, the QANTAS Museum. Now, we thought that we'd spend a half day here and be done, but that was not to be the case.
The first part of the visit at 9am was the Airpark Tour, taking us out onto the now covered area where there are several retired QANTAS Planes on display. A giant 747-200B, a QANTAS 707, a Super Constellation, and finally a restored DC-3.
Michael was our guide, a local Grade4 Teacher with a passion for people (and no doubt extra cash as a guide!) He was witty, filled with knowledge and facts about all of the aircraft's history, and the familiarity of calling the group his 'cherubs' hit a rather obvious nerve to all reading this I'm sure. The tour included going inside each of the aircraft nose to tail - quite amazing to be up close and personal with the varying degrees of technology.
Having completed our 90 minute tour, it was time to hit the Museum itself. We booked lunch in the cafe for 1pm, but we'd only completed one third of the Museum at that point. Settled in for lunch 'til 2pm then back to the Museum to complete the tour. A certain member of our party who will remain nameless for now, decided that souvenir shopping was far more interesting than any more history..............others completed the Museum.
Half a day had turned into a whole day, and we left 15 minutes before they were due to close for the day, but not without booking a Luminescence Tour for the night time show - $20 each, cheap as chips. After going 'home' for dinner, we returned at 7:30pm for the show.
Wow!! Who ever thought that you could use the fuselage of a 747 as a projector canvas is a genius! It was a 20 minute extravaganza of QANTAS history - fantastic show and worth every cent. No pics of the show were allowed, but the planes looked different at night.
Time to rest up back at the caravan park for the Stockman's Hall of Fame next day..............
How interesting!! I’m with mum - nothing like a thorough souvenir sweep!
The QANTAS museum looks fantastic! How cool to look at all those planes up close...I mean really close...like standing in that circle-thingy (technical term) for a happy snap close!? Nice one adventurers!