Mon 27th – The Qantas Founders Museum and Jet Tours are well and truly worth doing. First up was the Secrets of the 747 Tour, which starts with a run down of all the bits on the outside of the plane. Bits that tell the pilots when they are too close to the ground, others that tell the tower who and where the plane is going and who there are. Bits that let the pilots know of other planes and exciting info like where are the toilets are emptied. Did you know the engines are only held on by 5 bolts, scary.
Then we went inside and got a run down on the inside of the plane from the cockpit to the black box, even got to sit in business class.
The Boeing 707 Restoration Tour was really fascinating learning about the history of that particular plane, it was the very first 707 Qantas owned. Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 used to charter the plane. It had all the seats taken out and was set up as a luxury plane, complete with queen size bed and ensuite.
The museum side of things was also really well set up, giving a good run down on the history of Qantas and how it started. Very inspirational place, we spent over 4 hrs there.
The Machinery Mile at Ilfracombe is a row of old machinery, from trucks to tractors and tanks. There are also several old buildings filled with other memorabilia. Think we have had our fill of old memorabilia now, certainly makes us appreciated the time and place we live in.
We stopped at Barcaldine and had arvo tea before stopping at the Tree of Knowledge. It was poisoned in 2006 so all that remains is what they were able to preserve, sort of half a tree. It’s been set up as a monument to the 1891 shearer’s strike which then played a part in the formation of the Labour Party.
We stopped 40kms outside Barcaldine on the old hwy, someone had even left a fire place and some firewood for us.
