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  • Flying Doctor Visitor Experience Dubbo

    Flying Doctor Visitor Experience Dubbo

    Flying Doctor Visitor Experience

    How to Get There

    Located at Dubbo Airport, just a ten minute drive from town, the Flying Doctor Visitor Experience is easy to get to. From the entrance to the airport, simply follow the signs to the visitor centre, where a large car park allows easy parking.

    Flying Doctor Visitor Experience

    Housed in a modern building, the museum uses state of the art audio visual displays to explain the history and operation of the RFDS.

    RFDS History

    The first room contains a large central audio visual display, surrounded by information boards. These detail the history of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which gives you a great insight into what the RFDS has achieved.

    • Flying Doctor Experience History
      The History of the RFDS
    • Information Board Detailing the History of the RFDS
      Information Board Detailing the History of the RFDS
    • Information Board Detailing the History of the RFDS
      An Information Board Detailing the History of the RFDS
    • Information Board Detailing the History of the RFDS
      Information Board Detailing the History of the RFDS

    Walk Through Displays

    Just outside the history display is a replica of a King Air interior. This is a great display because it allows you to see what the RFDS aerial ambulance looks like. The interior is all set out, including the beds, medical equipment and pilot’s seat.

    • Replica Interior of a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air
      Replica Interior of a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air
    • Replica Interior of a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air
      Interior of a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air Replica
    • Replica Interior of a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air
      Replica Interior of a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air
    • Replica Interior of a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air
      Replica Interior of a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air

    Items on Display

    Several display cases show some of the older equipment used, which contrasts with the latest technology on display.

    • Old Radios on Display Flying Doctor Visitor Experience
      Old Radios on Display
    • Medicines and Old Radios on Display Flying Doctor Visitor Experience
      Medicines and Old Radios on Display
    • RFDS Treatment Room
      RFDS Treatment Room

    Aircraft on Display at the Flying Doctor Visitor Experience

    A retired Beechcraft Super King Air takes up one corner of the large auditorium, showcasing the main tool of the RFDS. A barrier surrounds the plane, but you are able to climb stairs to see into the interior.

    In the Outback Trek Café, a de Havilland Fox Moth biplane replica contrasts with the modern King Air, demonstrating how far things have come since the early days of aviation.

    • Beechcraft B200 Super King Air VH-MVY of the Royal Flying Doctor Service Flying Doctor Visitor Experience
      Beechcraft B200 Super King Air VH-MVY of the Royal Flying Doctor Service
    • de Havilland Fox Moth VH-UQM Replica Flying Doctor Visitor Experience
      de Havilland Fox Moth VH-UQM Replica

    Audio Visual Display

    The centrepiece of both main rooms is an audio visual display. In the entry room, an interactive display allows you to hear people’s stories, while using headphones and a touch screen. In the large auditorium, a huge visual display runs a video, detailing medical emergencies and how they were treated. This gives a great insight into the RFDS operations and how important they are to remote locations around Australia.

    • Interactive Display
      Interactive Display
    • Large Visual Displays in the Auditorium
      Large Visual Displays in the Auditorium

    Outback Trek Café

    After looking around the displays, the Outback Trek Café has a range of meals and refreshments, which is a great way to finish your visit. This area is spacious and provides a nice place to sit down and relax. An EH Holden used in the fund raising Outback Trek is on display here, along with the de Havilland Fox Moth biplane.

    • EH Holden at the Outback Trek Café
      EH Holden at the Outback Trek Café

    What Did We Think?

    We though this was a great place to visit, because it shows the full history of the Royal Flying Doctor Service in a modern setting. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in aviation or the RFDS.

  • Burwood Beach Mining Heritage

    Burwood Beach Mining Heritage

    Burwood Beach Mining Heritage

    Located south of Merewether Ocean Baths, Burwood Beach is not only a great surfing beach, but has relics from the areas mining heritage.

    There are several ways to get to the beach, each with its own benefits.

    1. The Yuelarbah Track, which winds down a Flaggy Creek, is a great hike in coastal eucalyptus forest.
    2. Hickson Street Lookout, which provides excellent views as you walk down to the beach
    3. From Merewether Baths for a walk along the beach without much up and down hill hiking.

    We have walked all three and the Yuelarbah Track is the more interesting, because it winds through some beautiful bushland. However, it is also the most difficult, due to the track and need to walk back uphill when returning.

    On our most recent trip we walked in from Merewether Baths, mainly because we hadn’t gone this way before. We found it to be a straightforward walk along the beach.

    Several of the relics are located on the rock platforms, so the best time to visit is low tide. This ensures that you can see everything while remaining safe.

    Railway Wheel on the Rock Platform

    When walking from Merewether Baths at low tide, a railway wheel is visible on the rock platform. This relic is now covered in seaweed and shellfish, which have made it their home on.

    • Rusty Rail Wheel on the Rock Platform at Burwood Beach
      Rusty Rail Wheel on the Rock Platform at Burwood Beach
    • Marine Growth on a Railway Wheel Burwood Beach Mining Heritage
      Marine Growth on a Railway Wheel
    • Railway Wheel Covered in Marine Growth
      Railway Wheel Covered in Marine Growth
    • Railway Wheel Covered in Marine Growth
      Marine Growth Covered Railway Wheel at Low Tide

    Railway Wheels in the Sand

    Further along the beach are three rusty wheels buried in the sand, but partially exposed.

    • Rusting Rail Wheels Buried in the Sand at Burwood Beach
      Rusting Rail Wheels Buried in the Sand at Burwood Beach

    Remains of the Burwood Beach Mining Heritage Rail Line

    A rail line once ran along the dunes hauling coal to the copper smelter but is now decaying as nature reclaims it. Rusting rail lines and sleepers, now exposed in places where wind and rain have revealed them poke through the sand.

    • Rusted Railway Tracks Burwood Beach Mining Heritage
      Rusted Railway Tracks
    • Old Rusting Railway Tracks
      Old Rusting Railway Tracks

    Rail Wheels in the Sand Dunes

    Near the exposed rail lines are several railway wheels, which are abandoned and rusting in the dunes.

    • Rusty Rail Wheel in the Sand Dunes at Burwood Beach
      Rusty Rail Wheel in the Sand Dunes at Burwood Beach
    • Rusty Rail Wheel at Burwood Beach Burwood Beach Mining Heritage
      Rusty Rail Wheel at Burwood Beach

    The Coal Seam

    A reminder of the coal mined here exists in the cliff face, where the exposed coal seam contrasts with the lighter coloured rocks around it.

    • Exposed Coal Seam at Burwood Beach Burwood Beach Mining Heritage
      Exposed Coal Seam at Burwood Beach

    What Did We Think?

    We thought Burwood Beach was a relaxed place to visit, because of the few people there. The relics from the mining past were a great addition to the day, as they lie exposed and readily visible.

  • Narrabri Paul Wild Observatory

    Narrabri Paul Wild Observatory

    Narrabri Paul Wild Observatory

    Operated by the CSIRO and located 25 km west of Narrabri in north-west New South Wales, the Paul Wild Observatory is an array of six 22 metre antennas used for radio astronomy. This was an unexpected highlight of our trip to the north-west, because we were not aware it existed until we arrived in Narrabri.

    Visitors must put mobile phones into flight mode and switch off Bluetooth devices because the can overwhelm the weak signal the telescopes are detecting.

    The Visitor Centre

    This modern visitors’ centre has excellent displays showing the layout of the radio telescopes and information boards. These displays are interesting because they explain how the array works.

    • One of the Information Boards at the Visitors' Centre
      One of the Information Boards at the Visitors’ Centre
    • Rest Area Inside the Visitor's Centre
      Rest Area Inside the Visitor’s Centre

    The Antennas

    Five of the six telescopes run on a rail track outside the centre, so you should always be able to see them. The sixth one is too far away to see. During our visit five were close, so we were able to photographs them all at once. Antenna number 2 was sitting right next to the car park, so we were able to see it in detail.

    • Antenna No. 2 Narrabri Paul Wild Observatory
      Antenna No. 2
    • Five Antennas Narrabri Paul Wild Observatory
      Five Antennas

    Paul Wild Memorial

    A sundial memorial to Paul Wild sits near the car park, as a tribute to his career in radio astronomy.

    Dr John Paul Wild was a British-born Australian scientist. Following service in World War II as a radar officer in the Royal Navy, he became a radio astronomer in Australia for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the fore-runner of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). In the 1950s and 1960s he made discoveries based on radio observations of the Sun. During the late 1960s and early 1970s his team built and operated the world’s first solar radio-spectrographs and subsequently the Culgoora radio-heliograph which is now named after him.

    In 1972 Paul Wild invented Interscan, a standard microwave landing system. From 1978 to 1985 he was chairman of the CSIRO, during which time he expanded the organisation’s scope and directed its restructuring. He retired from the CSIRO in 1986 to lead the Very Fast Train Joint Venture, a private sector project that sought to build a high-speed railway between Melbourne and Sydney. Lack of support from government brought it to an end in 1991. In his later years he worked on gravitational theory.

    Paul Wild Memorial Narrabri Paul Wild Observatory
    Paul Wild Memorial

    Outside Displays

    Several old telescopes are on display, including one of the heliograph antennas, which you will see at the entrance.

    • Old Antenna at the Entrance
      Old Heliograph Antenna at the Entrance
    • Old Antenna on Display at the Visitors' Centre
      Old Antenna on Display at the Visitors’ Centre

    What Did We Think?

    Not only do you see the huge antennas up close, but it is a fun learning experience on how radio astronomy works. A great place to visit if you are in the area.