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Qantas Founders Outback Museum, Qld.

Longreach airport was the initial operating base for Qantas when it was a local airline and until the base was moved to Brisbane. The original hangar at Longreach airport has been converted into a museum linked to a purpose-built museum; a retired Boeing 747-200B and a retired Boeing 707 are parked outside the museum. The highway runs immediately past the museum and it is not possible to miss the Qantas Founders' Outback Museum (www.qfom.com.au) marked by the gleaming white aircraft beside the highway when approaching Longreach from the east. It is nearly opposite the Stockmans Hall of Fame. The museum has a replica full-size Avro 504 on a rotating platform as centre-piece to the display with large scale models of Qantas' early aircraft moving along a ceiling trackway. Around the large room are stand-alone displays dealing with specific aspects of the formation and early years of Qantas while it was a local Queensland airline. The move onto becoming an international airline is covered but there is no doubt this museum lives up to its name of being about Qantas' founders. The displays describe how Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness came back from the First World War and were tasked with preparing landing grounds for contestants in the England to Australia air race. While surveying landing sites from Katherine to Longreach in a Model T Ford in 1919 they became convinced that air transport could help enormously in opening up the outback. They found a financial backer and organiser as well as several other business supporters and the decision was taken in the Winton Club to form an airline; hence Winton's claim to involvement in the Qantas story. But one of the earliest decisions by the new airline management was to use Longreach as a base, instead of Winton, because the railhead was at Longreach. Their first aircraft was an Avro 504 two-seater, the passenger had to wear flying gear and sat in the open cockpit. The first ticket is on display at the museum. Successive aircraft were introduced, some of then successfull, some of them failures. At one stage the Qantas engineering staff were building wood and fabric aircraft in the hangar at Longreach. one major innovation was the enclosed cabin for passengers; pilots preferred to be out in the open and retained the open cockpit. Then an aircraft with a toilet was introduced. Initially Qantas connected Cloncurry, Winton, Longreach and Charleville which were not directly connected by railway. The state government refused to permit Qantas to compete with railway services believing the train service had to be protected. Eventually, in 1929, Qantas was allowed to operate between Charleville and Brisbane in competition with the train. Mail contracts became a crucial element in Qantas' financial survival. But there was also a strong belief that the airline had to grow or perish and the expansion into an overseas airline on the England to Australia route is described in some detail. Qantas' first aircraft was an Avro 504. A full-size replica (left photograph) is the centrepiece in the museum while a scale model Avro 504 (right photograph) passes overhead. Replica DH61 aircraft in Qantas Longreach hangar. Passengers sit in the enclosed cabin between the wings; the pilot is in the open cockpit aft of the wings. A major theme in the whole display is the impossibility of predicting, at the time, that Qantas would grow into a successful international airline. The display underlines the series of fortuitous events and personalities that made possible the growth of Qantas.

Information. ¶   Qantas Founders Museum.

July 2007

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