What you see is what you get at Longway station, a 20,000-acre (8000-hectare) cattle property north-west of Longreach in central-western Queensland. Longway is the home of Warwick and Rosemary Champion, who can trace their connection to the property to 1914. In that year Rosemary’s great aunt Matilda Spence married James Howatson, who came to the station as a jackaroo and ended up buying it. From the 104-year-old homestead and the Santa Gertrudis cattle in the paddock to the scones they serve at “smoko” on the verandah and the flocks of birds that congregate in the extensive gardens, this is the real deal outback, with nothing tricked up for visitors.
