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Always wanted to experience Outback Queensland but unsure where to start? With many townships accessible by direct flight or sealed road, it’s never been easier to take to the Outback and experience stunning scenery and bucket list moments (no 4WD required).
Here are five reasons why it’s time to venture beyond.
1. Indulge in a spa experience in Cunnamulla
Open plains and endless skies, right in the heart of cattle country: this historic riverside town gives a taste of Outback Queensland, together with some added surprises. Fly to Cunnamulla via Rex from Brisbane, or take a road trip with worthwhile stops along the way including St George.
Cunnamulla is a highlight along Outback Queensland’s Wellness Way bathing trail, thanks to its prime location and access to the Great Artesian Basin, an underground reservoir of naturally heated, mineral-rich water, thought to be formulated over tens of thousands of years.
Connect to the ancient land with a bathing experience at Cunnamulla Hot Springs on the banks of the Warrego River, or at Charlotte Plains Station. 35 minutes’ drive east from town, this 27,000-hectare sheep station invites you to soak in pools or baths while emus and kangaroos amble past. Add the clay-enriched outdoor mud baths at Eulo, a 45-minute drive away, and finish with a spa treatment at Club Boutique Hotel for the full experience.
2. Spot stars, bilbies & WWII history in Charleville
Regional airline Rex flies directly to Charleville from Brisbane in two hours (alternatively it’s easily drivable on the full sealed Warrego Highway), making this historic hub an ideal launchpad for Outback Queensland adventures. Don’t let its warm, unhurried pace fool you; when it comes to heritage storytelling and must-see attractions, Charleville punches well above its weight for a small town.
This was the departure point of Qantas’ first ever paying passenger service in 1922, the site of Cobb & Co’s largest coach-making factory in Australia in 1890, home to the largest Royal Flying Doctor Service base in southwest Queensland, and where 3,500 United States Army Airforce servicemen were stationed on a secret base in 1943 during WWII (which you can discover at the exhibition centre). Well-preserved pioneer-era architecture can be admired on the Charleville Heritage Trail.
The town has also been credited with saving the adorable native bilby from impending extinction through its Save the Bilby Fund, which has worked on breeding and releasing the marsupials since the ’90s. Encounter them yourself at the Charleville Bilby Experience on a tour of the nocturnal house, and grab some cute souvenirs to take home, with all purchases benefiting the cause.
Head to Queensland’s largest planetarium, the Cosmos Centre, to take in some of the clearest, darkest skies in Australia in exceptional detail using a 30-inch Dobsonian telescope (you’ll see beyond the stars to distant galaxies).
3. Encounter station life on the Toogunna Plains & dinosaur fossils at Eromanga
Fly direct from Brisbane to Charleville and it’s a three-hour road trip to Toogunna Plains (which has its own airstrip for charters and private crafts). This 130,000-acre sheep and cattle station sits only 45 minutes west of Quilpie – a mining site well worth a stop for its boulder opals, where you can fossick for free and share a drink with the locals at Brick Hotel – and offers a one-of-a-kind farm stay experience. The scenery here is a change from the grasses further north, with endless plains, rust-red sands, silver mulga trees and intricate creek systems. Learn about the farm’s pastoral history on a station tour, admire sunset from the ochre-red dunes with bubbles and canapes, and swap stories round the fire pit.
20 minutes further is Eromanga, Australia’s furthest town from the ocean, which once sat on the Eromanga Inland Sea, around 100 million years ago. The town is well worth a visit for its natural history museum (home to the country’s largest dinosaur remains), oil and opal-mining heritage and characterful 19th century Old Royal Hotel.
4. See iconic Outback landscapes in Longreach
Longreach and Luminescent Longreach at Qantas Founder Museum. Source: Outback Queensland.
Combining classic Outback scenery with plentiful things to do, this working community is one of the largest in Western Queensland, reachable by direct flight from Brisbane (or the Spirit of the Outback train). Sat on the Thomson River and surrounded by Mitchell Grass plains, this is a town with heart, where the welcome is warm and its heritage honoured. Check out the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, which celebrates Australia’s founding pastoral pioneers, the Qantas Founders Museum with its restored Boeing 747 (on which there’s a light and sound show, Luminescent Longreach, bringing the Qantas story to life by night), and Nogo Station, where you can take a tour around the cattle station.
Get an alternative perspective on a river sailing; local tour operator Outback Pioneers offers a sunset experience followed by a campfire dinner and entertainment from a bush poet. Or watch the scenery flash past by train with a Silver-Tails rail experience at sunset, followed by the Smithy’s Outback dinner and show under the stars on the riverbank (bookable with Outback Aussie Tours).
5. Explore Winton & Rangelands Outback Camp
A worthy extension to your Longreach trip, Winton can be reached in less than two hours by sealed road (or otherwise by regional flight from Townsville). Travelling here is like being transported to another era, so untouched and unchanged are the ancient landscapes. This is nature in its rawest form; think vast, swaying grasslands, rock formations evolved organically over millions of years, and winding creeks flanked by spinifex and wildflowers. It’s easy to picture how dinosaurs once roamed here, especially when you learn this is where one of the most significant fossil discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere was unearthed (you can see an impressive collection at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum). Winton is full of historic charm; its main street is lined with opal stores, boutiques and old-world country pubs, in addition to the Waltzing Matilda Centre (the spiritual home of the unofficial Australian anthem), and The Crackup Sisters Outback-themed comedy shows.
You’ll get the most out of your visit by exploring with a regional tour operator. Through companies like Red Dirt Tours, you’ll untap fascinating local knowledge and access to private properties and lookouts. There’s no more spectacular way to admire the ‘Outback From Above’ than with a helicopter flight with Elite Aviation Services.
The night skies here are like none you’ve seen before; the clarity and lack of light pollution make stargazing a completely different experience from the city. Winton was recently certified with International Dark Sky Community status, making it one of the best places in the world to admire the night sky as it sparkles with endless stars and swirling, opalite-toned nebulas. The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum is also an internationally certified Dark Sky Sanctuary, and offers a guided experience at its Gondwana Stars Observatory, where an astronomy guide uses a laser to guide you around the night sky, with a chance for telescope viewing.
A 15-minute drive from Winton (you’ll be picked up from the town) is Rangelands Outback Camp; a private station and working cattle station hosting only 12 guests at a time. This adults-only stay marries little luxuries like sunset drinks and gourmet chef-prepared dining with the raw nature of the Outback; a guided walking tour of the caves and Rangeland Rifts (used as a location for films such as The Proposition with Guy Pearce) is unmissable.
Assistance has been provided through the jointly funded Australian-Queensland Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
