Longreach
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Longreach is a small town in the geographic center of the Australian state of Queensland on the Tropic of Capricorn . Longreach has 2738 inhabitants and is the capital of the Longreach Regional Council which has a population of 4054. However, these numbers have been falling for several years.
climate
The region's climate is continental, with large 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 of the Thomson River , which was first explored by Edmund Kennedy at the beginning of the 19th century , it was granted city status in 1897. With the connection to the railway network in 1892, a greater population growth began.
traffic
The Spirit of the Outback train still runs twice a week between Longreach and the Queensland capital, Brisbane . The travel time for the 1300 km route is around 24 hours. In addition, the National Highway A2 runs through Longreach on its almost 2000 km stretch from Brisbane to Darwin , the capital of the Northern Territory . Dirt roads lead to other places in the outback , such as Birdsville, famous for its annual horse racing . The airport, 2 km from the town, has two runways and there are regular scheduled connections with neighboring Winton and Brisbane.
economy
The region's economy is dominated by extensive cattle and sheep breeding and Longreach serves as the regional supply center. Tourism is also a growth industry.
The place is also the seat of the Longreach School of Distance Education which teaches children in remote places and farms, in Australia called Stations , via telephone connections .
Since 1967 there has also been a teaching facility of the Australian Agricultural College Corporation, which was previously known as the Longreach Pastoral College and trains specialists for agriculture.
tourism
Longreach is one of the places where the Australian national airline Qantas, founded in Winton in 1920, began as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services . The place was the headquarters of Qantas from 1921 to 1929. One of the original hangars from 1922 is still in use at the local airport today.
The popular Qantas Founders Museum not only gives an overview of the airline's history, but also has a Boeing 747-238, the first Boeing 707-138 put into service by Qantas in 1957 , which was fully restored in 2006 and is the world's oldest airworthy one Machine of this type is.
The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame , opened in 1988 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II , is another tourist attraction and has since drawn over a million visitors. Dedicated to the Stockman - the Australian equivalent of the cowboy , although Stockmen are better known for their sharp tongues than sharp shooting and an Akubra hat on their heads instead of the Stetsons - are numerous objects of historical and cultural reference out on country life in Australia.
various
As with a number of other places in Queensland, Longreach's streets are named after a theme. Here it's bird names. For example, the main street in town is called Eagle Street .
Longreach is the birthplace of Quentin Bryce , former Governor of Queensland and the first woman to serve as Governor General of Australia since September 2008 .
Web links
- Website of the Longreach Shire
- Australian Bureau of Meteorology: Climate of Longreach
- Qantas Founders Museum
- Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Australian Bureau of Statistics : Longreach ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
- ↑ Queensland Railway: "The Spirit of the Outback" ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
