Day 46 - Ilfracoombe

We walked the Ilfracombe Machinery Mile Machinery Mile in the morning. There were some really good old machinery exhibits. One that caught our eye particularly was the Ruston kerosene tractor. It was one of only three remaining in the world and it sits in the outback town of Ilfracombe in Queensland.

There was also a comprehensive gun collection, unfortunately none was named so it was a bit of a lost opportunity.

There was an interesting example of an early pioneer house – the Langenbaker House.

We found an improvised wrigley tin (corrugated iron) boat in the shed. It did not look very stable although the thought of tangling with estuarine crocs probably improved its stability.

The Wellshot Museum had a couple of interesting pieces of information. The Jackie Howe singlets of today are somewhat different to the singlet designed and worn by Jackie Howe. The picture below has a lot of reflected image but hopefully the general shape shows up.

There was also an example of a stores and provisions order placed in 1889. The station managers had to plan well ahead in those days.

For the station hands who visited the town to collect the stores there was a wholesome menu provided by the local hotel.

The Wellshot property lease was initially purchased by the Buchanons of Wellshot, Glasgow. They simply named it after their Scottish estate. The lease provided for later resumption, splitting and redistribution by the state of Queensland. Unfortunately the sizes of the split properties were not viable so many hopeful struggled and ultimately failed to make a living.

Last stop was a most amazing collection of bottles, hand tools and household artefacts. The owner was clearly never content with one of an item and had to collect multiple variations on a theme.