We awoke this morning to see a family of three Brolgas walking through the caravan park. Longreach must love its bird life because all of the streets have bird names, with water birds used for streets running NW/SE and land birds used for streets running NE/SW. Swan, Duck and Eagle Streets have some very decorative street signs and we learned during our evening tour from the bus driver that the Police Station is on the corner of Duck and Galah Streets!

Today we faced the hottest day of our trip so far with a forecast of 37°C and it was quite warm already when we arrived at the Stockmans Hall of Fame well before the scheduled 11am Outback Show. We watched a short orientation video and then it was time for the Outback Show. Like the show at Bourke, this was a one man show. Lachie Cossor worked with horses, dogs and sheep, but he also sang a couple of his original songs and included a Brahman bull in the finale.

Inside the Hall of Fame, which is a pretty impressive building itself, there are several themed areas which cover the history of settlement and development in the outback. The interior walls were covered by storyboards of "unsung heroes" which were an insight into a variety of people, many of them just ordinary folk, who have made an impression on the outback.

We returned to the van to get ourselves ready for a 4:45pm pickup for the Starlight's Cruise Experience, which would include us seeing sunset over the Thomson River while cruising on the Thomson Belle paddlewheeler, then enjoy a campfire dinner, bush poetry and the Starlight's Sound and Light Picture Show.   

The majority of people on the cruise were from the Bowen Garden Club and we enjoyed some conversation with them while enjoying the nibbles provided. After completing the cruise we all sat around the campfire and ate our beef stew accompanied by mashed potato and buttered bread. Sweets was apple sponge and custard. We then moved down to the river bank where we watched a movie telling the story of local legend Harry Redford, a cattle duffer and inspiration for Captain Starlight. 

The night was completed with billy tea and damper. We had a pleasant drive back in the bus while the driver told more local stories and we were dropped off at the caravan park around 9:30pm.