Conceived as a bicentennial project to put Cloncurry on the map, the John Flynn Place Museum has been a wonderful addition to north west Queensland’s tourism sites.
The museum celebrated its 30th anniversary in style on Thursday with around 60 guests coming in for dinner in the courtyard and to hear stories about how the complex came together.
Cloncurry was a suitable place for a museum to show the rich heritage of John Flynn’s Inland Mission as it was there in 1928 that the first medical retrieval flight took place to Julia Creek – a fact remembered earlier this year in the Royal Flying Doctor Service 90 year anniversary celebrations.
Friends of John Flynn Place president, Don McDonald, told the story of how they put a proposal together in 1983 to access bicentennial funds and then when it opened on October 4, 1988 how they got Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson to do the honours.
Ian Rose, now retired in Townsville, was working for Main Roads in Cloncurry at the time and was on the first committee.
He spoke about how local groups such as the Lions and Rotary raised $30,000 each as did other local groups as Cloncurry rallied behind its proposed new attraction.
Mayor Greg Campbell said plans were progressing to expand the museum further to including dining facilities and link in with Longreach’s Stockmans Hall of Fame to better capture that tourist market.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
