Outback Pioneers

Outback Pioneers' air-conditioned coach tour to Winton travels the 180 kilometres from Longreach and gives a local's insight into the scenery and highlights.

Winton is a fascinating outback town known for its dinosaur fossils and the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum is one of the highlights of the tour. The experience includes entry to the impressive Dinosaur Canyon. Follow in the footsteps of Banjo Paterson with lunch at the legendary North Gregory Hotel, where Banjo Paterson first performed Waltzing Matilda. Explore even more about this unofficial national anthem in the purpose-designed Waltzing Matilda Centre.

Bookings are essential.

Outback history and a contemporary working station come together at Outback Pioneers' Nogo Station near Longreach.

The station was originally part of the famous Bowen Downs station. Join your Outback Pioneers host to live the pioneering spirit as you experience an insider's view of station life. Meet the merinos and hear the merino story in the historic woolsheds.

Travel by open-top, double-decker bus to view the sunlit plains where wedge-tailed eagles fly. Local wildlife mingles with iconic cattle breeds and stock horses. It’s a photo opportunity extraordinaire with camels, kangaroos, emus, wild donkeys and more. You’ll also visit the ruins of Captain Starlight’s stockyards where you will share a pioneers' saddlebag lunch under the gum trees in true outback style.

The Outback Pioneers air-conditioned coach will pick you up from your accommodation and take you to Nogo Station. Bookings essential.

Re-live the heyday of stagecoach travel. On the Cobb and Co experience you'll travel in a restored stagecoach – first at a leisurely pace through town and then full-tilt along a stretch of the original Longreach to Windorah mail route. Hear the pounding hooves of the magnificent horses on the outback dirt road. Hear the rattle and creak of the coach. Hold on to your hat for the only stagecoach gallop in Australia! It's exhilarating. It's entertaining. And it's the closest you can get to feeling what it would have been like in the pioneer past.

After the ride and photos, slow down with a traditional smoko (the original Aussie tea break), a classic Australian movie in retro cinema seats and the Old Time Tent Show, an hour of laughter and a tribute to the old travelling shows.

The four-hour experience starts from the Outback Pioneers booking office in Longreach – bookings essential. The Old Time Tent Show with a billy-can lunch can also be booked separately.

This is Aussie outback humour and ingenuity at its best! It's a hilarious hour of entertainment featuring animals, stockmen and improvised live theatre with a laugh a minute. Kids love it and so do adults.

Based on the traditional outback travelling shows, it's hard not to be charmed by the simple delights of bush theatre - but be warned – the folks in those days didn't have quite the same standards of political correctness so you'll need to leave your high horse at the gate and share a few old-fashioned jokes in the good-natured spirit they are intended.

This is part of the Outback Pioneers Cobb and Co Stagecoach Experience or can be booked separately.

Make sure you don't miss Outback Pioneers' cruise to experience the only paddlewheeler west of the Great Divide and enjoy an adventure to the heart of outback tradition.

After a gentle cruise down the majestic Thomson, where birds flock home to roost on the riverbanks at sunset, you'll go ashore for a traditional stockman's camp-fire dinner under the stars, followed by bush poetry with their local bush poet.

Next the bush is illuminated by the Starlight's Spectacular Sound and Light Picture Show – a unique big-screen presentation featuring the Kinnon family and locals in the amazing adventures of the notorious cattle thief known as 'Captain Starlight'. This movie is a tribute to the bush skills of the rogue drovers and was specially commissioned by Outback Pioneers to celebrate this story of audacity and daring.

Finally, in the atmospheric surroundings of the bush at night, enjoy the timeless favourite – billy tea and damper.

Bookings essential.

This 3-day break is not just about hearing outback stories – it’s about living them! You’ll stay two nights at The Staging Post in the heritage heart of Longreach and enjoy award-winning experiences. You’ll ride a Cobb & Co stagecoach through the bush including a gallop (the only place in Australia to experience this). You’ll visit a working station hosted by the Kinnon family who live and breathe the outback. You’ll cruise the Thomson River at sunset on a historic paddlewheeler or riverboat and have a campfire dinner under the stars. It’s the iconic outback life plus entry to Longreach attractions packed into three amazing days.

This 4-day weekender is as far from routine as you can get! With great accommodation and unique experiences in Longreach and Winton you’ll feel as if you’ve been transported to another world where history lingers and landscapes have timeless tales to tell. Arrive on a Friday afternoon and immerse yourself in the real Australian outback. Over the four days you’ll find yourself galloping in a stagecoach through the bush, falling in love with the sky on a sunset cruise on the Thomson River, savouring a stockman’s dinner under the stars and walking in the footsteps of dinosaurs.

Experience the very best of Longreach and Winton in six days. Immerse yourself in the unique sights, sounds and tastes of outback Queensland. You’ll stay in The Staging Post boutique accommodation in Longreach where pioneer life inspires every detail. Set your imagination free as you ride a stagecoach through the bush, cruise down the Thomson River at sunset for a stockman’s campfire dinner under the stars, and tour across the sunlit plains of working Nogo Station where animals roam and history whispers through the grass. You’ll also venture onwards to remote Winton where dinosaurs once ruled and Waltzing Matilda was born. Expect entertainment, laughter, hearty country fare and genuine outback hospitality.