Queensland Outback Tour - Old Planes & An Old Hotel

Our last day in Charleville was by far our best.

This morning we took ourselves out to the airport and grabbed an advantaged position to watch the landing of the twenty five planes taking part in the Royal Flying Doctor Service Pilgrimage - a flying tribute to make the 90th anniversary of the RFDS. The group are flying from Dubbo in the NSW Central West and had already visited Moree and Roma before Charleville. They will visit several other towns in Qld which have been important landmarks for the RFDS, before finishing the journey in Mount Isa.

There were some serious old birds among the group, including three Gypsy Moths. In they all came, one after the other and out stepped a variety of ... well it would be wrong to call them pilots, as their commitment is better rewarded with the term enthusiast. The surprising thing was the shortage of people who turned out to see the event. It has been poorly advertised, with the local paper saying they would cover the event after it had happened so they would have photos!

Sue, who knows little about planes, was enthralled and even though I don't know as much as either my brother or father, I have always loved aircraft, having at one stage wanted to be a fighter pilot in the same way most boys want to be firemen.

We went into town to The Black Sheep Cafe and had lunch, a delicious stew made on the premises. The cook even came to our table to check we had enjoyed it! Unbelievable hospitality in this town.

Amy Johnson's famous bathtub

Our afternoon was filled with a fascinating tour of the Hotel Corones and more stories about the man behind the place, Harry Corones. He started out as an owner of a cafe in Charleville - who would have thought, a Greek cafe owner - and moved into the Charleville Hotel as it licensee a few years later but it burnt down in the same year. It was rebuilt in brick to prevent fire and Corones signed a new lease. Soon after he built Charleville's first cinema and in subsequent years was one of the first shareholders in QANTAS.

In 1924, he started building Hotel Corones and from the start it was to be in grade style. Fully tiled walls and floor and the biggest bar top in Qld. Four ornate pillars were a feature of the bar and stained glass windows. Accommodation was added upstairs and a very fancy dining room. To this he added a dance hall beside the hotel which was the venue for all of Charleville's most important weddings.

Many famous guests have stayed at the Hotel Corones, including Gough Whitlam, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester (well one of those Royals), Brian Brown and many famous aviators. In 1930, the famous English aviatrix Amy Johnson, landed in Charleville as part a solo flight from England to Australia and of course, Harry Corones with his love of aviation, insisted she stay at his hotel. She ordered a bath be drawn but filled with champagne. 23 bottles did the job but Harry, always on the lookout for making an earned pound make another, had the bath drained back into the bottles and sold them as mementos!

A small landing from her room and one other beside it provided a secret access to the back of the hotel, where the famous could whisk consorts up a steep but unseen staircase and into their room.

Click to see today's photos

It was an excellent tour which was as much about the legendary Harry Corones as it was about his hotel.

Our evening ended with a campfire stew provided by the owners of our caravan park, the Bailey Bar and chats with fellow travellers.

Queensland Outback Tour - Cosmos Observatory, Charleville

Cosmos Observatory

Sue and I did different activities this morning. Sue was off to look at the sun, while I investigated the military aviation history of Charleville.

Sue

Peter and I separated this morning; he went on a WWII Tour to a secret base and I looked at the sun through a telescope at the Cosmos Centre during the Sunviewing Tour. My guide showed us different photos of the sun and explained how it came to be and lots of interesting facts.

There was only two of us so we took turns looking at the sun through the telescope hoping to see flecks fly off but not today. We were given special eclipse glasses so we could look directly at the sun outside. That was cool.

Peter

... and from all that excitement, we catch up with me. My tour followed a variety of dirt tracks around the airport to discover the second world war history of Charleville, which began in 1942 and carried on until 1946. In 1942, the Australian government gave the the government of the USA a 100 year lease over the Charleville airport and proceeded to have the Australian Civil Construction Group build three runways and more than a hundred buildings for the three and a half thousand American Air Force personnel who were stationed here. The US 43rd Heavy Bombardier Group with their B-17 Flying Fortresses were stationed here, along with the 63rd and 65th Bomb Squadrons. In all, aircraft (heavy and light bombers and fighters) flew out of Charelville. The airport's major contribution was as the staging post for bombers in the battle of the Coral Sea. More than 250 B-17's gathered at Charleville before flying to Charter Towers for fuel and the loading of bombs and then out to the battle.

Norden bomb sight

A key part of the tour was viewing a Norden Bomb Sight, the hyper accurate device designed by Carl Norden and used by bombardiers in B-17's, B-29's and later Australia's Canberra Bombers. The rest was a drive around a variety of sites and having their uses explained. Very few buildings remain as they were either raised to the ground before the Americans left or sold to local residents. 

Our guide, James, had many tales to tell about life on the base, included the delousing baths all enlisted men had to have once a week. The "baths" were six foot ditches dug in the earth and lined with asphalt, into which a 50/50 mixture of water and DDT was filled and each man had to completely immerse himself. Goodness knows what the long terms effects were!

There also stories of dances held on the base. As enlisted men were not allowed off the base, local women were bused it. There were no bands or musicians, just anyone among the men who might play an instrument. Several war brides rose from among these dances, including the daughter of Charleville's leading businessman, Harry Corones.

Corones was keen on aviation and was instrumental in making sure Charleville was a stop over in air races, some of which spanned the world. He began catering for fledgling QANTAS flights and was the first to provide in-flight meals to an airline in the world. His hotel still stands in town, after being completed in 1929. Stain glassed windows, high ceilings, a sweeping staircase to the first floor and an elegant dining room are hallmarks of another time. The hotel runs to this day - in all its capacity - and was our delightful spot for lunch and a cold beer. Corones was the first Greek to hold a public licence to serve alcohol in Australia.

Click to see today's photos

We went on a mission to find a new pair of boots for me but to no avail. There were some good choices but none either fitted well or had the right tread. Golders, in Alfred St, couldn't have done more to help me, with the shop assistant even suggesting a store in Longreach which might have what I wanted. Amazing: invested 45 minutes in me, got no sale but gave me a pointer to another town and another store. Not sure I'd get that service at home. A subsequent phone call appears to have secured the boots I need down the road a bit.

Dinner tonight with other travelers at the caravan park and then bilbies in the morning.