Longreach: 4-Hour Starlights Cruise Experience

Highlights

Inclusions

Itinerary

1. Enjoy a gentle sunset cruise down the majestic Thomson River, where birds flock home to roost on the riverbanks. This is Longreach’s original Thomson River Cruise and still a must-do for every visitor to Longreach. There are endless photo opportunities and an insightful commentary as you pass natural features. You'll be cruising on the original paddlewheeler, which has riverside seats all around and lets you capture photos of the photogenic river at sunset.

   1.5 h

2. We go ashore for a traditional stockman’s camp-fire dinner. This is the real outback experience with inspiring and humorous traditional entertainment featuring our bush poet and your Kinnon family host.

   1 h

3. Next, the bush is illuminated by the Starlight’s Spectacular Sound & Light Picture Show – a unique big-screen presentation featuring the Kinnon family and locals in the amazing adventures of the notorious cattle thief known as ‘Captain Starlight’.

   45 min

4. Finally, in the atmospheric surroundings of the bush at night, enjoy the timeless favourite – billy tea and damper.

   30 min

Cancellation

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts, for a full refund.

Reviews

Ratings come from 420 reviews collected by our booking partner. They are travellers' own words, in the order they were written — never reordered to flatter the experience.

Showing reviews written in English.

• 2Longreach is not a cruise destination

  It came highly recommended. Obviously no one has ever been on a $5 ferry on Sydney harbour. The Thompson is a dirty creek, and it was something like $160 each. Expensive, forced into a tour group, ordinary food, and lasted way too long.

  LewDog101September 2026via Tripadvisor

• 5An Outback experience one remembers for life!

  We would recommend any tour with this company as we did most. They are highly organised so much fun and the food was of excellent quality! They should get an award for excellence in tourism. Wonderful people of the Outback! Thank you for the best holiday and one we would recommend to all.

  DeniseF2794September 2026via Tripadvisor

• 5Outback Fun with character

  This is a very relaxing evening and night tour. All the staff were great, the food was really good as outback Tucker should be, the bush poetry and yarns were fabulous and the sunset was outstanding.

  Lynn_RSeptember 2026via Viator

• 5Amazing sunset tour

  From booking our tour to completion was an excellent experience. The receptionist was extremely knowledgeable Cassie made sure we would be able to join in all parts of the tour (I have some health and dietary issues.) the operators made sure I didn’t miss out. The boat cruise was very informative and the first mate did an outstanding job with questions being answered and changed hats to be an excellent steward. The campfire meal and entertainment was first class can see why the tea towel stew recipe sells out have ordered mine in line. Would encourage anyone stopping in Longreach to book this tour. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

  592aidandSeptember 2026via Tripadvisor

• 2Thompson River Undelivered

  I was appalled when I saw the boat. There was an almost full bus load of us & we transferred to this paddle wheeler boat that was clearly not meant to carry so many passengers. They actually asked us to redistribute so the paddle wheel would remain in the water, or something like that. This boat was TINY and awful. They made jokes about it like we were idiots. The safety, the " facilities " and so on. My take away was that they played up the " bush larrikin " thing as kind of a cover for the fact that what they deliver is unbelievably substandard. We know it's the "bush" but we also know a bogus roadside attraction dressed up as something else. During dinner they played some very country / bush tunes by the likes of John Williamson, Troy Casser Daly, and a few others. Most very nice in my opinion but... I loved Slim Dusty's music but some of it hasn't aged well. They played an unfortunate old Slim Dusty song called "Trumby" A line in that song goes ... "His skin was black but his heart was white and that's what matters most" This .... in front of maybe 40 to 45 people??? The stew was good The bush poet / narrator was excellent The rice pudding was yummy. That's it from me.

  garryp527September 2026via Tripadvisor

• 5Cruising the Thompson and Dinner of Damper and Stew

  MY Husband and I drove from Brisbane to Longreach, We met over 30 ladies from as far away as Melbourne who had flown to Brisbane then Went by Train to Longreach for a 5 day stay at 3and 4 star accomodation The Coach INN or The Stables. Entertainment and a beautiful shop for your souvieners. I totally recommend Outback Pioneers after all they where there when we fist started going to Longreach in 2011.

  JanM486September 2026via Tripadvisor

Know before you go

How it compares in Longreach

• Its from-price is 64% above the median of the 7 experiences we list in Longreach.
• By number of reviews it ranks 1 of 7.
• The operator lists free cancellation on it.

About Longreach

Longreach is an outback town on the Thomson River in central-west Queensland, known for its stockmen's heritage and the early days of Australian aviation.

Longreach lies on the broad Mitchell-grass plains of central-west Queensland, beside the Thomson River, on the Landsborough Highway. Sheep and cattle country stretches in every direction under a huge sky. Eagle Street, the wide main street, is lined with old pubs and verandahed buildings from the days when the town was a coaching stop and a railway terminus.

See all 7 experiences in Longreach