A Country Practice
05 May 2015
Leaving behind the nine-to-five chaos of the city, Active Retirees editor Jo-Anne Hui took a trip to the outback in Longreach and returned with a newfound appreciation of the town’s good old-fashioned country values and hospitality.
I’m a city girl through and through. Give me busy crowds, traffic and sky-high buildings any day of the week. So it was a bit of a culture shock when I arrived at Longreach Airport with several Probus members and all I could see outside were large expanses of big, brown land. And when I looked down at my mobile phone, I had no phone reception. What was I going to do if I couldn’t post photos up to Facebook every five minutes?
Good old-fashioned hospitality
Longreach is at the very centre of Queensland and it’s the real outback, where there are big, dirt roads, total strangers say hello to each other on the street, kangaroos can be seen roaming alongside the road and it hasn’t rained in a very, very long time.
While there may not have been the late-night bars that I’m more accustomed to in Sydney, one of the loveliest things we experienced in Longreach was the warm, friendly country hospitality that so many people gladly offered when we met them. Everyone that we came across gave us a genuine smile and a ‘g’day’.
During our time in the town, we visited Nogo station, which is owned by the Kinnon family and where we were served a traditional ‘smoko’ or morning tea. This included pots of delicious hot tea and homemade biscuits and slices that the youngest girl, Abigail, had just whipped up that day. Long, wooden benches were set up outside under the trees, where we sat and relaxed.
It’s a ritual in the country that city folk don’t often encounter, explains the owner of tour company Kinnon and Co, Richard Kinnon.
“In the country, it’s always been a tradition that if someone rolls up to your station, you ask, ‘would you like a cup of tea?’ That’s country hospitality. It’s what townies or city people don’t get,” says Richard. “When guests roll up, you make sure to ask what you can do for them and what they need. You open your home to them.”
A sense of community
While neighbours might live kilometres away from each other in Longreach, most people in the town know each other’s names and it’s clear that there’s a great fondness and passion for the land. During a visit to the Heartland Theatre, we listened to musicians from Longreach, who shared their stories and love of the town through song.
According to Richard, it’s the unique characters and personalities of Longreach who make it so special, such as Scotty the Barefoot Bush Poet, who regaled us with entertaining poetry by a campfire one night.
“Our city cousins who come to visit love meeting the characters here
They come out here to experience the atmosphere of the real Australia,” he says.
James Walker, who hosts sunset progressive dinners at his family’s 100-year-old homestead, Camden Park, has lived in Longreach all his life and enjoyed a wonderful childhood growing up in the town.
“The sense of community is just so great here and it’s the perfect environment to raise children in, where they're taught practical, sound values that they can take through life,” he says. “It’s a very wholesome upbringing for kids and it’s a caring and nurturing journey, which is reflected in our attitudes to other people.”
“Kids learn how to care for nature and animals and they learn how to create their own fun and activities. Instead of being caught up in the digital world, we’ve got the outdoors, whether it’s swimming in the river or jumping in a dam or mustering sheep and cattle.”
Living history
From the infamous cattle theft by stockman Henry Readford (also known as Captain Starlight) in the late 1800s, to the current drought ravaging the land, Longreach is steeped in history. The town is full of stories that Richard feels need to be preserved and shared with ‘our city cousins’. The focus of the Kinnon and Co tours is on living history, from visitors watching old-time tent shows to riding through the beautiful outback in a replica Cobb and Co stagecoach.
“I think we’ve got a great story to share. So when I see families bringing their kids to Longreach, it warms my heart,” he says. “Those kids will smell things, like the bulldust, and they’ll feel things and see things – all those little things that will be with them for the rest of their life.”
Not to be missed
Here are some of the highlights from Longreach:
• Stockman’s Hall of Fame
• Heartland Theatre
• Outback Stockman’s Show
• Qantas Founders Outback Museum
• Longreach School of Distance Education
• A progressive dinner at Camden Park
• A sunset cruise down the Thomson River
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