Monday morning sure looks fine with a morning walk downtown or along the Botanical Walkway. If you’re an early-morning coffee person, you can get your fix at a variety of cafes or small eateries. After a relaxed brekkie, head to the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame to wander the museum galleries, watch ‘A Stockman’s Tale’ cinematic experience, and enjoy the Outback Stockman’s Show. In the afternoon, take a 20-minute drive to Ilfracombe where you can walk the Machinery Mile then tuck into refreshments, lunch, or dinner at the historic Wellshot Hotel.

Get the heart pumping with a 45-minute morning stagecoach ride in a restored Cobb & Co Stagecoach. It begins with a relaxed pace through town then races full-tilt along a stretch of the original Longreach-Windorah mail route. Follow this up with some traditional bush theatre at The Harry Redford Old Time Tent Show. Head up the road to the Qantas Founders Museum for lunch and wander through the museum and original hangar. You can also join a 707/747 Jet Tour, Wing Walk, or have a go at a Flight Simulator.

A self-guided Longreach Cemetery tour might also be the ticket if you’re keen for more stories on local legends. For a fascinating insight into distance education in the bush, visit the Longreach School of Distance Education (formerly Longreach School of the Air). The one-hour guided tour includes a live on-air lesson with students and teachers. Visit the Longreach Powerhouse and Historical Museum where you can walk through giant engines and see how electricity was generated before the age of computers. You can also drive to Starlight Lookout where you can enjoy the entire endless view of the outback. Late afternoon is perfect for a sunset cruise, dinner, and entertainment on the Thomson River.

Meet local graziers on a morning station tour today. Depending on your time, you can choose the 2.5-hour tour of the third-generation Strathmore Station or the 4-hour Nogo Station Experience. At Strathmore, you’ll learn about Santa Gertrudis cattle and Merino wool production then enjoy a delicious home-baked morning tea back at the homestead. On Nogo you’ll experience the Merino story in their historic shearing sheds, go on a station safari, and tuck into a traditional smoko under the gum trees. This afternoon, meet the Walker family at Camden Park Station for a tour of their property and sunset nibbles at One Tree Hill.

Today’s the day to explore more of the region. Drive around 1.5 hours south-east from Longreach and you’ll arrive in Isisford on the Outer Barcoo. See a life-sized replica of ‘Isisfordia Duncani’ at the Outer Barcoo Interpretation Centre; it predates the first recorded appearance of true crocodiles by over 30 million years. Learn how Isisford came to be with a visit to Whitman’s Museum. Keep an eye out for the Outback’s biggest Yellowbelly sculpture. Spend a few hours on the water at nearby Oma Waterhole, one of the many permanent waterholes fed by the Barcoo River. Overnight Isisford.

Drive another half hour from Isisford and you’ll reach Emmet, a historic railway siding with just two permanent residents. Emmet is the western getaway to Idalia National Park, home to the yellow-footed rock-wallaby. If you are keen to explore, then test out one of the walking trails. They are graded from Easy to Difficult. From Emmet, it’s just a 50-minute drive to Yaraka and the End of the Line Museum. Call the Yaraka Hotel for refreshments, accommodation, and a chat with the friendly locals. Meet some locals and stock up at the general store. Join the daily sunset tour to Mount Slowcombe for awesome 360-degree views of the beautiful Mesa hills. Overnight Yaraka.

About an hour southwest of Yaraka is the turn-off to the ruins of Magee’s Shanty, said to be where Banjo Paterson wrote ‘A Bush Christening’. You can join a tour run by the Yaraka Hotel or drive yourself. Also in the area are the ruins of a Cobb & Co pub and the lonely grave of gold miner Richard Magoffin. Return to Longreach this afternoon or continue your outback adventure to one of our neighboring regions. Speak to our Visitor Information Centre staff for assistance.

A little bit of preparation goes a long way in the Outback Region – ensure you have a good map and plan ahead. It’s a good idea to calculate travel times and distance between stops, even preparing alternative routes, especially when traveling during Australia’s summer (November to April) when rain and storms can impede travel plans. 

We are not trying to scare you, but you don’t want to be in an uncompromising position while in the middle of nowhere.

Contact the Longreach Visitor Information Center or visit the Government Traffic and Travel Information website at qldtraffic.gov.au or call 13 19 40 for current road conditions.

If you’re traveling remotely, it’s always a good idea to let someone know where you’re going, and when you plan to get there. Keeping in touch is not as hard as you might think, via phone or radio or an old-school way of leaving a note. 

If you are a member of a ‘caravanning convoy’’, don’t travel too close together. Other road users will become frustrated if they are unable to overtake safely. The law requires caravans and other large vehicles, outside a built-up area, to leave at least 60 meters between each other. The distance is 200 meters in a road train area. Don’t be selfish!

Be mindful when passing and overtaking road trains and heavy vehicles, including other caravans. Make sure you have a clear line of sight, allow plenty of room, and be prepared for vehicles to move from side to side as you overtake. If a road train is approaching to overtake you, move as far to the left as possible and stop if necessary to allow it to overtake safely.

Longreach, Mount Isa, Charleville, Bedourie, and Birdsville have coverage from Telstra only. Outside of these towns, only Telstra Next G Network is available, usually within a 20km radius of towns. There is limited mobile phone coverage in the far southwest corner of the region, west of Quilpie. Public phones are recommended for extended travel in this area.

We recommend you bring your satellite phone if available. 

On major highways, fuel stops are rarely more than 200km apart so it should not be necessary to carry spare fuel. However, where you see ‘NO FUEL’ signs, it means exactly that. Make sure your vehicle is mechanically sound, a first aid kit, ample water, and spares such as tires, radiator hoses, and fanbelts together with a good tool kit. Ensure that your spare tire is at the correct pressure.

Long distances and stretches of unchanging landscape can make a driver very tired. Avoid driving at night as much as possible, kangaroos and other wildlife are much more active at night and are harder to see on the roads. 

When meeting road trains and heavy vehicles on a single-lane road, slow right down move off the road entirely, and stop to avoid driving into any obstacles on the verge. In wet conditions, road verges tend to be soft and/or slippery, so when pulling off to the left you should always keep your right wheels on the bitumen and keep moving slowly to avoid getting bogged. 

If you see stock or wild animals near the road, you must slow down. Do not swerve or your vehicle may roll. Be patient with stock and be wary of kangaroos and emus. It pays to be vigilant when driving in the Outback, especially either side of sunrise or sunset when kangaroos tend to be at their most active and the light makes seeing them more difficult.