A taxi from the airport costs: Not much. The airport is literally over the road, where you'll also find the amazing Qantas Founders Museum, so you'd be mad not to walk.
Check-in experience: Perfectly friendly, staffed mostly by backpackers. The process included the handover of a little pot of milk for your tea and coffee.
The room: In a little enclave of traditional slab huts, it's all very Outback pioneer, except today's travellers can also enjoy all the mod cons including cooking equipment, a fridge, a heat pump (with air con), a television and very comfortable beds.
Traditional: The wooden slabs of these huts have been cut and air-cured, in keeping with the way the early settlers did it
Breakfast at Kinnon & Co Slab Huts, Longreach, Queensland.
Who owns it?
The Kinnon family. About to go belly-up from yet another year of drought, they had the bright idea to start farming tourists. The whole family perform a pioneer tent show, and put on river cruises and Cobb & Co horse and carriage excursions.
Naming rights: The huts are all named One Mile, Two Mile, Three mile, etc, a reference to the outstations and how far they were from the homestead. I was in Eight Mile, which felt very Eminem.
The bed: Wrought iron, very old-school to look at but super-comfortable too, with patchwork design quilts in keeping with the style. Being surprisingly far off the ground, it also felt a bit princess and the pea.
Hot stuff: The bedside table is actually an old branding furnace.
So whacked: The fly swat that hung behind the door looked more like something you'd see in a dungeon - leather straps on a sturdy handle. I couldn't help but wonder who'd used it and how, because I didn't see any flies. Who's been a naughty pioneer, then?
Bathroom: Amazing rain showers, despite the drought. All the fittings are vintage, the robes are soft and fluffy and the hair dryer was rather impressive. The cabinetry is made from gidgee wood, a beautiful hardwood timber.
You're soaking in it:
There are three outside baths, perfect for admiring the stars but, being communal, you'd want to wear togs. Or not.
Kinnon & Co Slab Huts, Longreach, Queensland.
Toiletries:
Ubiquitous Millennium chain bottles, they are what they are.
Food and drink: Tea and coffee, the rest is else up to you
Minibar: Bring your own, nothing of that sort of thing is laid on.
Noise: Those crazy Australian birds like to sing a bit.
Keep cool: There's a sweet little pool but it's tucked away so as not to spoil the pioneer feel.
What's in the neighbourhood? Aside from the Qantas Museum and the fascinating Stockman's Hall of Fame, the actual town is lots of fun for wandering around.
Time to kill: Each hut has its own verandah, perfect for sitting and reading. The grounds were a bit barren as the planting hadn't grown in but, given time, all that sort of thing will sprout.
What's so good about this place? It's like taking a step back in time.
Couples or singles, with room for a kid in a cot but it's really more of an older adult place - the grey nomads, as they're called, flock to this place.
