Location: Hamilton Island

Weather: Blowy and sunshine on the coast, very hot and sunny in the Outback. 27 – 37c

Having been involved with a number of charity expeditions and adventures over the last few years of my life I was keen to do so over here in Australia too, so when the suggestion of a trip to the outback to get involved with the Outback Trailblazer 4×4 event to raise money for Angel Flight I was only to happy to jump onboard.

Angel Flight is a charity that co-ordinates non-emergency flights to help country people trying to deal with the triple trouble of bad health, poor finances and daunting distance. All flights are free and may involve patients travelling to medical facilities anywhere in Australia.
The Best Job has thrown up a few luxurious, exciting means of transport over the last few months but nothing could prepare me for the day I headed down to Hamilton Island Aviation with Bre and Bruce Wallace from Tourism Queensland ready to depart for a four day trip to the Outback.

Parked up outside the hangers was a mean looking machine, a silver and grey turbo-prop Pilatus PC-12 – one of the sexiest looking planes I’d ever seen…let alone been on. As we walked across the tarmac to meet the lucky owner Bill Bristow, I wondered just what one has to do in life in order to own something quite as stunning as this!

As I climbed on board and turned to look into the cabin area I realised this was exactly the way film and pop stars travel; lavished by acres of sumptuous leather and cooled to just around ‘comfortable’ by the air-con system – this is THE way to get around the place. I made myself comfortable in the co-pilots seat, adjusted my headset and listened intently as Bill made his flight plan clear to the control tower and we started the taxi to the northerly end of the runway turning into the brisk headwind readying for takeoff.

With a simple push forward of the throttles we powered down the runway, gaining speed with every metre until Bill pulled back on the controls and we rose silently and effortlessly from the runway and climbed sharply into the sky above. Ten minutes later we reached our cruising altitude of 10,000ft levelled out and steered a course due west of Hamilton Island heading for the outback town of Longreach some 700kms away.

Longreach has a famous past; it marks on the map the location of the home of Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited) Australia’s national airline, and it was here in 1920 that the company was founded and the first flights flown. The Stockman’s Hall of Fame is another major attraction here (opened in 1988 by my very own Queen Elizabeth) in the dry and dusty outback town, it provides the visitor with an insight into the history of the pioneers, the stock workers and the aborigines who shaped and worked the land over the centuries to make it was it is today. From the short time I had there it was easy to see quite how resilient and tough they would have to be in order to survive the conditions and to farm the land in order to survive.

We jumped onto the back of the Trailblazer event, joining the group of 25 four-wheel-drive vehicles a couple of days into their weeklong adventure challenge. Each day involved driving between 70 and 200kms between towns and whilst doing so taking part in some mental and physical challenges to earn, or loose, funny money – the only currency which is accepted ‘in these parts’. The teams are made up from local business, off-road fans, Angel Flight supporters and even a vehicle made up from Tourism Queensland representatives as the Outback’s a seriously enjoyable and interesting area for tourists which needs to be promoted more. Coming off the back of a trip around Africa it was particularly appealing to me and I couldn’t wait to get under its skin…

Before the convoy set off the next morning there was a chance to explore some of the tourist attractions here in town. First stop the “Stockman’s Hall of Fame” and a little lesson in whip-cracking for me…an essential skill that I’d be needing later in the day as I took to the saddle for the first time and tried my hand at ‘mustering’ – the art of herding cattle from horseback.

As we all sat down in front of the display area waiting for the show I sensed that my afternoon was about to get a little bit more interesting, the gaze that Tony gave me as he entered the arena indicated it wouldn’t be too long before I’d be out of my seat and up helping him out…sure enough once Tony had thrilled the crowd with his display in whip cracking making a noise akin to gunfire, it was my turn. I had the obligatory cowboy hat on my head, the very essential sunglasses covering my eyes (in case I wasn’t as good as he was expecting me to be) and a sense of fear at what I was about to try and do!

• Method number one: Aim for an object in front of you and try to hit it with the 3-metre long leather whip. Simple. Oh no it isn’t! Tony made it look far too easy, pulling sharply back on the handle forcing the whip back at break-neck speed creating an ear numbing ‘CRACK’

• Method number two: Twirl the whip around your head in a circular motion, suddenly reversing the direction again creating a massive noise.

• Outcome to number one and two – Ben makes no noise and nearly takes off the tops of his ears in the process…hence the safety sunglasses!

Next stop the Qantas museum to visit the largest thing in the town – a full size Boeing 747 that was flown onto the town’s runway back in 2002 and now dwarfs the original Qantas hanger. It could easily be seen from the air when we landed and in order to safely land it, on a runway, which is much shorter than the usual 747 landing strip, it had virtually everything stripped out of it to lighten its weight and give it a chance of stopping before the end of the runway – and a very dusty graveyard.

Having never been airside before at a major international airport it was an awesome sight seeing this graceful beast from right underneath it. During her lifetime, which spanned 23 years, she flew over 82 million kilometres and Longreach was made her final resting place as a fitting tribute to her service for the company. Today you can walk along her wing, climb into the cockpit and see inside the lining of the roof to get much better idea of what she is made of. I’ll know a lot more next time I climb onboard one!

We headed down to the local agricultural college for the last activity of the day….there were 26 head of cattle out in the field and it would be my job to get them back in with the help of Bre and a couple of the girls from the college.

Enter problem number one – I have not and cannot ride a horse. This could be very amusing for all watching. Tony very kindly finds me a easy going, well behaved ride and once I’ve put on the hard hat and boots I make my way to my steed, put my leg in the stirrup and throw my weight over saddle onto its back. Wow what a feeling – I’m actually on a horse!

After a few minutes familiarisation learning how to make my ride go forwards, backwards, sideways, turn and trot we (that’s Bre – whose damn good at riding it turns out, Tony and the two students) make our way out of the stables and into the bright sunshine. I’m actually really enjoying this newly acquired skill – now I’m not saying I mastered it by any means but it was damn good fun…apart from the part where we had to trot and I bashed my crown-jewels to pieces trying to time my bouncing!

With the help of my mustering team we herded the cows towards the gate and through into holding area where my next job was awaiting me. Separating the heifers from the steers (or girls from the boys for the rest of us). It takes a fair bit of courage and stupidity to jump around in an enclosed area with a load of hyperactive cows all trying to get out, but the job was to be done before we could finish for the day – Bre had the task of herding one out at a time into the next holding pen where I had to take over and make sure the beast was directed through the correct gate to gather all of the heifers in one side and all of the steers in the other. Simple.

The combination of confusion, dust and frantic arm waving resulted in the task being completed successfully with much amusement to all watching us…we really did come across as a couple of amateurs taking far too long, the cows even seemed to raise an eyebrow at our antics.

Up bright and early the next day was essential…today I was dressing up as one of the early pioneers of Australia and taking part in a race across along the famous Thomson River with Bre and I riding in an amazing replica stagecoach against a paddle steamer – could this trip and experience get any more interesting and unusual!?

Dressed in the glad rags of the era we climbed aboard Rob’s stagecoach and prepared ourselves for the ride of our lives. With the sun beating down the open-sided trailer towed by four horses was not a place to rest and relax, the steel-springed suspension offering little in the way of comfort and protection from the elements but ‘oh’ how much fun we had careering along the bumpy track alongside the river…and in the end we lost out, just, to the paddle steamer taking a valiant second place – out of two.

Being in the outback means a number of things; serious dry and dusty heat, vast expanses of featureless, barren land desperate for a drop of rain, extremely hospitable and friendly locals and livestock. Generally cattle and sheep – and where there’s sheep there’s shearing!

Enter Ben’s latest role and another new job to try out – sheep shearing. My experience with this amounts to one afternoon in a shed in Wales with my Aunty around 20 years ago so my skills aren’t exactly what the property owner would be looking for in a potential shearer for the season. When the heat is on and the blades sharpened and oiled a professional can complete nearly 400 sheep in a day, now that’s moving I can tell you.

Counting the flock is another skill I really didn’t have much knowledge or experience with but essential if your working out how many of them you’re taking to market so when presented with a massive gaggle of fast moving sheep you need to have your wits about you. My test came as the herder opened the gate and let them all ran at me at once…I tried so hard to count them as the jumped past (isn’t counting sheep supposed to put you to sleep) and when we compared totals I was miles out…somehow imagining 20 more sheep than there actually were. Ooops.

The final drive of the day took us to Muttaburra where we’d be sleeping for the night, a dusty little town of around 150 people with one of the major tourist claims for the area – the site of Australia’s largest dinosaur discovery back in 1963 by Doug Landon. The Muttaburrasaurus was about seven metres long and walked about on its hind legs spending most of its time foraging and resting on all fours. This giant was a plant eater and belonged to the ornithopod group of dinosaurs.

Everything in the town relates to this incredible discovery; the pub, the community centre and even the murals on the school walls! My nephews would love to come here and you almost feel as though one could walk right through the town centre and no one would blink an eyelid such is the belief in the area!

Muttaburrasaurus

Accommodation that night was suitably exotic but hugely fun, whereas the other Trailblazer competitors had been given tents to bed down in, Bre and I had been given the penthouse suite of the town – a converted bus with double bed and air-con. It was perfect and a cracking place to wake up the next morning…if a little confusing to start off with.

The local children at the school only come together every few months due to the vast distances between homesteads, some live nearly 700kms away from the school and so most lessons are carried out using a radio system at the school. The headmistress conducts the lessons across the internet and short-wave radio network to her class of 20 students. Once every term the pupils all come together to see each other and we were lucky enough to be there for the reunion. One thing they do very well however is perform and sing…a song about dinosaurs of course!

The trip into the great unknown had drawn to a close and our lift out of here was ready, courtesy of Marjorie – another of Angel Flights big guns, a pilot who has flown many sorties to help people less fortunate than herself. Today however she would instead have the more usual task of flying us back to Proserpine and it was with sorrow that we had to leave the convoy as it wound its way further into the big beyond.

My time in the Outback was a real treat and hugely good fun, the people we’d been lucky enough to meet (however briefly) all showed us great hospitality and it was fascinating looking into their lives for just a short period of time learning how they survive and live in this harsh part of Queensland.

The feeling of community and perseverance when up against it is overwhelming – some of the farms haven’t seen rain for seven months but there’s always a freshly watered lawn and immaculate garden outside every house. Pride in their town and property is seen across the board.

After seeing Africa from the road last year this trip in another 4×4 (albeit not a Land Rover) into an area as unique and special as this has totally re-ignited my passion and desire to travel across the rest of Australia once the Best Job adventure is over – the Outback is a hypnotic and beautiful place.

End of trip location: Muttabarra, Queensland
Distance travelled: 700kms by private jet, 250kms by car and 700kms back by light aircraft.