21-Sep-2010 --

While planning a trip from the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane to Lawn Hill north of Mt Isa I checked the map to see if we would go past any confluences that hadn’t been done. S22 E143 fitted in to our timing very well. After overnighting in Longreach we drove to Winton, site of the first registered office of Qantas Airways.

We headed north towards Hughenden on a good bitumen road and after about 35km turned into the driveway for Lana Downs Station where we were greeted by dogs as big as horses. Luckily the owners were home and after explaining about the confluence they gave us permission and directions to get to the point.

The country was mostly open grassland with trees and some prickle bushes along the creek beds. This is good cattle country and the Brahman cross cows we came across were in excellent condition. As the photos show it was very dry but on our journey to Longreach we had passed through some heavy rain, which was unusual as the wet season usually doesn’t start till the end of the year. About a month after our visit the owners emailed us that they too had some good rain and a picture showed the grassland transformed to a sea of green.

We were able to follow graded access tracks to water bores, going through the inevitable gates and parked 700m from the confluence point as the ground was too rough to drive off the track. It was easy walking, crossing a dry creek bed.

We took the necessary photos and then headed back to Winton, to continue our journey north.