Tuesday, 8 October 2024
At 8.00am Bernie headed down to the Outback Pioneer’s shop to pick up our tickets for this morning’s Cobb & Co Stagecoach Experience. We called past the shop yesterday afternoon but, of course, they were closed because it was a public holiday! We needed the tix because there had been instructions that we should collect the tix before the ‘experience’ and we weren’t sure where the experience would be departing from. Bernie was soon back with the all-important ticket in hand. Just one ticket but with four names on it.
At 8.45am we were back at Outback Pioneers on Eagle Street our host met us and took us into the Welcome Home Tearoom for ‘smoko’ before our stagecoach departure. Gosh, if I’d known I would be having a scone with jam and cream at 9.00am I probably would have skipped my cereal??
After a leisurely morning tea/smoko between 9.00-9.30am it was time to head out into the Cobb & Co Courtyard to board the stagecoaches. The classic coaches were hooked up to teams of five matched bay horses. Hmmn, a team of five, three in front with two behind seemed … unusual. Not that we know anything about carriage horses. More on that shortly.
We didn’t get straight into the two coaches heading out this morning because all the passengers had to do a photo op in front of the coach with red heeler, Bessie, posing on the wheel beside them. Not ‘professional’ photos that we had to decide whether or not to pay extra for, just photos taken by the staff with our phones. THAT makes a pleasant change! As we had our photos taken, we went to sit in the bleachers. After all the photos were done, we were kitted out with period inappropriate headsets and calls were made for who wanted to sit inside, out the back or up front with the driver. Cathy and I played it safe and went inside. Bernie opted for up the top out the back and Steve clambered up beside the driver.
And off we went on our Cobb & Co Stagecoach ride. Driving along Eagle Street our driver, Sarah, told us that there is a system with all of Longreach’s bird-themed street names. If the street runs towards the river (Thomson River) it is named after a water bird, if the street runs parallel to the river, the street is named after a land bird. On the outskirts of town, we crossed the Thomson Development Road onto a dirt trail through the scrub to the south of Longreach.
As we trotted along towards the town common, Sarah also told us why Cobb & Co runs teams of five horses. Back in their heyday, they couldn’t train horses quickly enough to meet demand, so they started training horses on-the-job by harnessing untrained horse between the other two on the front. The new horse was then hemmed in on each side by experienced horses and had the shaft between the pair of horses in the second row right behind it. The new horses learnt their job quickly and then could be switched to other positions in the team. We were also told that the teams are generally made up of former pacers and trotters so good to know that the horses are still being exercised and mentally stimulated after retiring from racing.
At the ‘town common’ the drivers of the two coaches ran though the sort of conversation that two drivers heading in opposite directions might have – track conditions, any problems with passengers and other news from the route. After turning back towards town, the teams were taken on a short gallop which Sarah told us would not be normal back in the day. Drivers known to have galloped their teams without good reason could be sacked. Even this morning it seemed tough on the horses with the temperature already in the 30s. With summer approaching and the hot and wet weather associated with it imminent the stagecoach experience season will soon conclude.
After our return to the Outback Pioneer’s depot, we were shown into the tented bush cinema with a small bag of popcorn to watch an Australian Classic Bush Movie. Today’s offering was ‘Smiley Gets a Gun’. The movie is the 1958 sequel to ‘Smiley’ which was released in 1956 and introduced audiences to the mischievous Smiley Greevins. In this sequel he gets himself into all sorts of strife as he attempts to prove himself a responsible citizen by helping others, so he can earn a new gun from Sergeant Flaxman. The sergeant is played by Chips Rafferty, Leonard Teale plays Mr Stevens and Ruth Cracknell appears as Mrs Gaspen. Have to confess I didn’t recognise them; I looked the movie up on IMDb.
From the cinema we made our way back to the courtyard for the Harry Redford Old Time Tent Show. This was a lighthearted telling of the Harry Redford (possibly Readford) story. Around 1869 Harry and and his team audaciously stole 1,000 head of cattle from Bowen Downs and drove them all the way to South Australia where they believed they could sell them without the Bowen Downs brand being recognized. However, the mistake that they made was to include a huge white bull worth more than £500 in the belief that it would keep the herd quiet. But trying to sell such a distinctive animal proved their undoing. Although, when tried in Roma in 1873 the jury found Harry ‘not guilty’. Harry is believed to have been (at least part of) the inspiration for Rolf Boldrewood’s character ‘Captain Starlight’ in his novel ‘Robbery Under Arms.
When the show ended at 1.00pm we made our way to a Kynda Café and Boutique for some lunch. Ha, we are making a habit of having to choose our lunch from the few items left at the end of lunchtime. There were four ham, cheese and tomato Turkish bread rolls left in the refrigerated cabinet, so we opted to have those toasted up for us.
We called in at the apartments before driving out to the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame because Bernie and Steve were dusty from choosing to ride on the outside of the stagecoach! Situated opposite the QANTAS Founders Museum, the hall of fame pays homage to Australia’s history and the quintessential Aussie Stockman. Exhibits celebrate Indigenous Australians, pastoralists, drovers and the stock routes they travelled, explorers and other legendary figures who shaped our nation’s identity.
We went a little bit upmarket for dinner tonight heading to Harry’s Restaurant. And, yes, the name of the restaurant was inspired by THAT Harry.
