Longreach, QLD
Dry downs carry a truck and wet downs do not
Mitchell grass country looks friendly until it rains. Dry, the black downs are a crumble a truck can cross. Wet, the same ground will not take a boot, and it stays that way because the water cannot get away. The sheds that need a box sit well off the bitumen.
A scheduled inland run
Longreach sits on a scheduled inland run, along the Landsborough or across the Capricorn through Emerald and Barcaldine. Both are long. The box moves when a truck is already pointed this way, photos of that unit go out before it is loaded, and a wet week that shuts the downs adds delay because nothing heavy rolls.
Downs towns nearby
Barcaldine is 4725, east on the way in from the coast. Ilfracombe is 4727, the next town along. Winton is 4735, further out. Blackall is 4472 and Muttaburra is 4732, off the main run. A town frontage and a station track past one of those names are not the same booking.
Mitchell grass after rain
Once a truck has arrived, town is flat and simple. The country is the work. After rain the downs close to heavy vehicles and stay closed, sometimes longer than the storm. A dry week in town is not a promise that the track is fit.
Station approaches run twenty to fifty kilometres of formed earth, with unrated grids, floodways and bulldust holes that look solid. Gates are often narrower than they look. The turn at the shed has to be firm. The driver will set down short of the shed rather than risk a track unused since the last wet. A formed approach takes a tilt-tray for the shorter lengths. A forty-foot, or a spot against a shed, needs the crane.
Sheds far from town
Shearing gear stays locked at the shed instead of scattered across the run. Drench and vaccines stay out of the heat. Filters and oils sit a long way from a supplier. Pump spares stage near the bore. Fodder stays clear of mice. Contractors in town use the same bay.
Notes on downs rain, station tracks and unknown grids.
Why do downs roads stay shut after the rain stops?
The black downs have nowhere for the water to go, so heavy wheels stay off. A closure can outlast the storm. A dry town grid does not open a station track.
What should a station track include in the booking?
How far off the bitumen, gravel or earth, and where the floodways are. Twenty kilometres and fifty are different. Say when a truck last drove it.
How are grids without a rating treated?
As unknown. The truck does not test them. A reset post can also narrow a gate. Give the tightest width, or stop this side.
Will the driver push through to the shed anyway?
Not if the track is doubtful. The box goes down on firm ground short of the shed. A crane beside a shed still needs that stand.
Room for more.Less mucking around.
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Quote a downs delivery
Tell us how far off the bitumen, what the grids are rated, and when it last rained.
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