Longreach, Queensland
Longreach is a small town in the geographical center of the Australian state of Queensland on the Tropic of Capricorn. Longreach has 2976 inhabitants and is the capital of the Longreach Regional Council which has a population of 4054. These figures, however, are declining in recent years.
Climate
The region's climate is continental, with embossed high temperature differences between day and night. The average daily maximum temperature is 31.3 ° C, the average minimum is 15.5 ° C. The average rainfall is 433.4 mm per year.
Historical
Named after the long reach, the great extension of the early 19th century for the first time explored by Edmund Kennedy Thomson Rivers in 1897 was awarded its town charter. With the connection to the railway network in 1892 began a larger population growth.
Traffic
Even today, the train runs Spirit of the Outback twice weekly between Longreach and the capital of Queensland, Brisbane. The travel time for the 1300 km long route is around 24 hours. In addition, the National Highway A2 leads to its nearly 2000 km stretch from Brisbane to Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory, through Longreach. Unpaved roads lead to other places in the outback, such as the Birdsville known for its annual horse race. The 2km from the village distant airport has two runways and there are regular scheduled flights to the neighboring Winton and Brisbane.
Economy
The region's economy is dominated by extensive cattle and sheep and Longreach serves as a regional supply center. A growth industry is tourism.
The place is also the seat of the Longreach School of Distance Education via telephone lines which children in remote places and farms, called Stations in Australia, teaches.
Since 1967, located at the site, a teaching site of the Australian Agricultural College Corporation was formerly known as Longreach Pastoral College and trains professionals for agriculture.
Tourism
Longreach is one of the places where founded in Winton 1920 national Australian airline Qantas as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services began. The place was 1921-1929 Head of Qantas. One of the original hangars from 1922 is still at the airport, the resort is in use.
The popular Qantas Founders Museum not only gives an overview of the history of the airline, but also next to a Boeing 747-238, the first Qantas Boeing 707-138 went into operation in 1957, which was completely restored in 2006 and the world's oldest airworthy machine of this type.
The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame, which was opened in 1988 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, is another tourist attraction and has since attracted over one million visitors. The device, which Stockman - the Australian equivalent of the Cowboys, although stockmen are more known for her sharp tongue as sharp shooting and an Akubra hat sits on his head instead of Stetsons - dedicated, provides numerous objects of historical and cultural nature with respect to life on the land in Australia from.
Miscellaneous
As with a number of other locations in Queensland, the streets are named after a theme in Longreach. There are bird names. The main street of the town is, for example Eagle Street ( Eagle Road ).
Longreach is the birthplace of Quentin Bryce, the former Governor of the State of Queensland and since September 2008, the first woman in the office of Governor-General of Australia.