CQ Audiology runs a visiting clinic in Longreach so people across the outback can see an audiologist without a long day on the road. Appointments in town are held at North & West Queensland Primary Health Services, 19 Duck Street, Longreach QLD 4730. An audiologist is a university qualified hearing health professional who measures hearing, works out what lies behind a hearing difficulty and helps you manage it. The base clinic is in Rockhampton at T33 & 34A, City Centre Plaza, 24 Fitzroy Street.
Visiting-clinic days vary by location. Please call (07) 4848 6528 to confirm the next available clinic in Longreach before travelling.
The clinic at 19 Duck Street
Duck Street sits close to the centre of Longreach, and sharing an address with North & West Queensland Primary Health Services puts the clinic where people already go for health appointments. That helps in a town where a trip in from a property is planned around several errands at once.
There is no permanent hearing office in Longreach. The room is set up on clinic days only, and no recurring timetable is published here, because the western run shifts with road conditions, weather and how many people are waiting in each town.
A service centre for a district measured in hours
Longreach is roughly 685 kilometres west of Rockhampton and further again from Brisbane. It is also the town that Ilfracombe, Muttaburra, Isisford, Stonehenge and the surrounding stations come to for banking, freight, schooling and health. Plenty of people already drive an hour or more just to reach the main street.
That shapes how the appointment is run. Nobody wants to make the trip twice, so a first visit is booked with enough time to talk, test and explain the results the same day, rather than sending you home to wait on a letter. If a device is worth considering, we go through what it involves before you drive back.
Working ears in grazing and aviation country
The noise around Longreach is not the noise a city clinic hears about. Road trains idling in the yard, station workshops, welders and compressors, bore pumps, chainsaws, light aircraft and helicopter mustering all sit in the ordinary working day. Add a few decades of open cab machinery and the pattern is familiar across the district.
Custom hearing protection is worth raising at your appointment, particularly for pilots, mustering crews and anyone who spends long stretches in a workshop. Impressions can be taken during a clinic visit and the finished earplugs posted out.
Fitting an appointment around the outback year
Longreach has a shape to its year. The cooler months from about April to September bring visitors to the Qantas Founders Museum and the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame, and with them long shifts for people working in accommodation, tours, hospitality and coach transport. Mustering, shearing and the wet each have their own claim on the calendar.
If your work lifts through the tourist season, a quieter month is an easier time to sit down for an hour. If your work is on the land, the gap between jobs tends to be the practical window. Call and we will look for a clinic date that lands sensibly for you.
What happens on a clinic day
Set aside about an hour for a first appointment. The order rarely changes.
- We start with your story: what you are missing, where you are missing it, how long it has been going on and what your ears meet at work.
- Both ears are examined so the ear canal and eardrum can be seen clearly. Wax in the way is discussed first, because it alters what the tests show.
- You listen for tones at a range of pitches and respond when you hear them, even faintly.
- Speech testing follows, since making out words in real conversation is the part that affects daily life.
- Middle ear measurements help identify where in the ear the difficulty is arising.
- The chart is explained in the room, with your questions answered while the results are in front of you, then we set out the options and a plan.
Devices, servicing and follow up
Choosing a hearing aid is only the start of the job. Fittings need fine tuning once you have lived with the settings for a few weeks, and devices need servicing as filters block and domes perish. Because Longreach is a visiting site, that follow up is planned around the clinic calendar and your own travel, so adjustments line up with a trip you were making anyway.
If something goes wrong between visits, call reception on (07) 4848 6528 rather than waiting. Many problems are solved on the phone or with parts sent by post. If a visit is needed, we will say plainly whether the next Longreach clinic or a trip to Rockhampton will get you sorted sooner.
Help with the cost of hearing services
Ask about cost when you book, not when you arrive. Eligible pensioner concession card and DVA card holders may access services under the Australian Government Hearing Services Program; eligibility criteria apply. Devices we work with are included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG). You will be told what is covered, what is not, and what any device costs before you commit to anything.
A town that understands distance
Longreach became an aviation town because distance was the problem worth solving, and the Stockman's Hall of Fame exists because the district decided the story of the inland was worth keeping. Both are reminders that services out here have always had to travel. A visiting hearing clinic is a small version of the same idea.
Other towns on the western run
CQ Audiology also visits Barcaldine at the Barcaldine 60 & Better Program, 13 Willow Street, Blackall at Blackall Hospital on the Landsborough Highway, and Tambo at the Tambo Multi Purpose Centre, 26 Arthur Street. Emerald and Blackwater sit further east along the Capricorn Highway.
Making an appointment in Longreach
Call (07) 4848 6528, email reception@cqaudiology.com.au, or fill in the online booking form. Say Longreach when you contact us and we will confirm the next clinic date and reserve a time.
This page is general information, not personal medical advice. For guidance about your hearing, speak with a qualified professional.