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Date: May 2005
Location: Outback Queensland, Australia
The travellers have sought refuge from the sun in the cool shadows of a corrugated iron shed in Queensland's Outback.
A man is singing. It's hard to hold back the tears as the haunting words from The Drovers Boy drift across the room.
The sad song tells a tale of love and loss in the Outback. In those days, loneliness, isolation and sheer hardship were the lot of people who decided to seek their fortune out west.
But the harsh beauty of Western Queensland formed a unique culture which created Australia's unofficial national anthem Waltzing Matilda, gave birth to Qantas and saw a bitter battle between shearers and the establishment in the 1890s, which led to the creation of the Australian Labor Party.
Today, sealed roads, air-conditioned accommodation, caravan parks, comprehensive tours and modern facilities have made exploring the Outback more comfortable than could possibly be imagined by its early pioneers.
An 80km stretch of the sealed Matilda Highway
in Outback Queensland, about 1,000km northwest of Brisbane, takes in the fascinating
towns of Longreach and Barcaldine.
 In
a Longreach shed, Alan "Banjo" Blunt is singing
the Drovers Boy and his audience, gathered in the cool shade, are pretending they're
trying not to cry.
The sad song tells of a personal, forbidden love which endured until tragedy struck.
But Banjo, a masterful bush performer, can have the audience in stitches only minutes later.
He and his small performance troupe have built a replica of a wool shed, known
as Banjo's Outback Theatre, on the outskirts of Longreach
where they perform bush poetry, songs, skits and yarns.
"We try to cover the old bush entertainment before radio and tv," Banjo says.
Audience participation is invited, even down to learning how to shear a live sheep or working out some muscles on a working wool press.
And the hospitality extends to some billy tea, damper and a barbecue, depending on the time of day.
Banjo is among many out west who are preserving a remarkable heritage.
Another is Mad Mick, who runs Mad Mick's Hoppers and Huts in Barcaldine.
Although Mick Morrison himself does not appear mad, some might think living in a slab hut similar to that of the pioneers might suggest a little craziness.
Well it would if it didn't look so comfortable.
In his dusty compound sheltered by huge shade trees, Mick has lovingly re-built old buildings found decomposing around the district.
There's an old golf club, a pioneer's slab hut, a reconstructed wool shed, shearers' quarters and an old Cobb and Co staging house.
All the huts have a purpose. Apart from living quarters, there's an amazing doll collection from across the decades, some shearing machinery which still works, a kerosene box sat on by Bob Hawke (the area is the birth place of Labor after all) and, of course, the hoppers.
The hoppers bound around the place at their leisure and if you can't guess what they are, you'd better ask Mick. One is called King Wally Lewis, who apparently earned his reputation after kicking a media photographer on a previous visit.
The pride of the place is an early 1920s Model T-Ford. Don't be deceived by the way it sort of slumps dejectedly in its garage.
Mick has its engine purring like a kitten in seconds and then you can find yourself sitting in it and whizzing around the compound.
Like many in Queensland's Outback, Mick has a yarn or two to tell over billy tea and damper and it's hard to leave this little piece of peace in Barcaldine.
Getting there
Drive access is west from Brisbane via the
Warrego Highway and then north along the Matilda
Highway (total distance 1,200km) or west from Rockhampton via the Capricorn
Highway (total distance 680km) or north from NSW via the Kidman Way through Bourke.
There are regular flights from Brisbane to
Barcaldine and Longreach.
Queensland Rail has services from Brisbane to Longreach on the Spirit of the Outback.
- By Shaun O'Dowd
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