Longreach
Tourism

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campsite and stopover for cattle drovers and adventurers on their way to the wild Australian west. In Australia's bicentennial year these daring heroes of the outback were commemorated by the establishment of the Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre (exhibitions, theater, library).

Opposite is the old airfield of the Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services. The airline which was to become world-famous as Qantas carried out its first experimental flights at Winton, 170km north of Longreach, but soon afterwards moved to Longreach. The first hangar of 1912 is still standing.

Australia's first aircraft factory was also in Longreach, and the DH-50 biplane was assembled here in the 1920s. Regular air services began in Longreach, and light aircraft soon became the most important means of transport to the inhospitable expanses of the west and north.

The Flying Surgeon Service, conveying surgeons to remote hospitals in the outback, started from Longreach in 1959.