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Area 23 · Act 4 · The Eastern Front

The Channel Country Campaign

Outback south-west Queensland — Longreach to Birdsville: braided dry channels, gibber plains, mirage-flat horizons, artesian bores as the only water

DAY 182: THE NATIONAL AIRLINE ANNOUNCES A NEW ROUTE. THE DESTINATION IS THE EMUS.

The history behind it

Qantas was founded at Longreach in 1920; here the army has commandeered the young airline's entire fleet, so every biplane strafing the swarm still carries its cheerful passenger-service livery and an apologetic timetable

Outposts (4)

Take all of them and the area is yours. Retreat halfway through and the ones you already hold stay held.

  1. Longreach Aerodrome

    Airfield · Defence tier 5

    The commandeered Qantas hangar. Two Biplanes cycle strafing runs until captured; Lewis Gun Posts cover the strip and Field Artillery ranges the open gibber. Capturing it grounds the planes for the war.

  2. Artesian Bore No. 9

    Artillery battery · Defence tier 4

    The district's only reliable water, ringed in Barbed Wire with a Lewis Gun Post and a Searchlight Tower for night operations. Starvation doctrine made literal — take it or farm nothing here.

  3. Cooper Creek Supply Depot

    Supply depot · Defence tier 3

    Truck convoy staging point in a dry channel. Truck-Mounted Lewises reposition along the channel braids; strand them in the soft sand and the depot's Sandbag Officer is left shouting at nobody.

  4. Birdsville Track Picket

    Homestead garrison · Defence tier 2

    Lonely pub-turned-outpost on the stock route. A Rifleman Line and one heat-mad Cavalry Patrol. Comedy objective territory: the publican keeps serving both sides.