May 17-20, 2021
Our next destination was to visit Longreach and the Qantas Founders Museum as we had been able to get a booking for their basic tour which is easily booked out . Instead of staying in Longreach the Caravan park at Ilfracombe, (25 km out) is often recommended and it didn’t disappoint. A pleasant park and not so squeezy despite being almost full during our 3 day stay, good amenities and reasonable price for a tourist area ($34 per night).
Ilfracombe no longer has any shops or fuel;,having been a separate Shire Council until the forced amalgamations in 2008 it now has, to serve the public, a Post Office, Visitor Centre and the very well-known Wellshot Hotel.
The railway to Longreach runs through here and the old Station Building sits alongside the new elevated platform for the twice weekly (each way) Spirit of the outback passenger train service.
Ilfracombes’ most prominent feature, unmissable by anyone driving through, is the Machinery Mile alongside the highway. An amazing collection of Road Graders, Tractors, old Farm Trucks, and smaller machinery which stretches from now en of the town to the other between road and railway. The collection includes some very rare items like the 1917 Ruston Kerosene Tractor and the converted Stuart Tank, both in the photo gallery below. Another unusual exhibit is this pair of tractor-drawn carts which have a PTO drive from the tractor going through to drive the centre wheel on each trailer.
