Introduction to today's journey
The ground trembled under the weight of the colossal sauropods. Their long necks reached high in the dense foliage of the vast Gondwanan rainforest. Nearby the alert theropods stalked through the dark underbrush, searching for unsuspecting prey. They cross an open area leaving their footprints in the mud avoiding the huge indentations of the sauropods. Quickly they scatter as a flash flood from a rainstorm in the nearby hills washes a fresh layer of softer mud to quickly preserve the footprints, eventually preserving them perfectly in stone to remain deeply buried deep below the ever changing outback wilderness until being accidentally discovered in an exposed creek bed 95 million years later.
Today's journey goes several hours north west of Longreach, crossing endless farmland wilderness until reaching the Australia Age of Dinosaurs area where we explore the amazing exhibits. From there we continue to Winton to explore the town before heading back to Longreach.
Today's Journey
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Setting off from Longreach, we travel across the dead flat farmlands north westward towards Winton, turning off the main road after 165 kilometres. |
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Heading up a hill to an exposed plateau, we stop at the Fossil Preparation Laboratory which is part of the Age of Dinosaurs Natural History Park. Here we see numerous fossils of dinosaurs which once roamed the area which would have been the lowlands at the edge of a large shallow inland sea. People are working on extracting the old bones from the rocks that are brought in. A large section of assembled neck is on the middle table. |
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From the laboratory, we head to the nearby dinosaur stampede exhibit which was excavated from a creek bed at the bottom of the hill and brought up here and preserved in this enormous building. The footprints of numerous dinosaurs and other animals are clearly visible on what would have been a muddy bank 95 million years ago. |
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A thunderstorm strikes while we are in the dinosaur stampede building, but as soon as it clears we head out walking to the nearby Dinosaur Canyon for lunch. The interesting rockforms hanging off the edge of the plateau are part of what was once a large plain before the rocks were eroded down to the lower current plain here in channel country. |
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We head to a nearby museum displaying the fossilised bones of numerous large dinosaurs. |
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From the museum we head back down the hill into the plains, where we pass a herd of cows eating the fresh vegetation. The land here is normally arid and all the recent rain meant the vegetation was growing a lot faster than the animals could eat it, giving rise to a potential large scale fire threat in future years when the drought returns. |
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Thirty kilometres out from the Age of Dinosaurs Museum we reach the town of Winton, the first sign of civilisation since leaving Longreach this morning. We pass the Winton Club, famous for where QANTAS started. |
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We continue a short distance to our first stop in Winton at the musical fence. Here locals have created an interactive musical exhibit out of all sorts of junk. |
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Our next stop is Arno's Wall, a seventy metre long rock wall built by a local over many years, bringing in rock from his opal mine and concreting it together. He incorporated all sorts of junk from the mine into the wall giving it a lot of character. The long strip of land on this side of the wall is now a park. |
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We head to the outskirts of the small town to the Willie Mar Fruit and Vegetable shop operated by a Chinese settler for many years until closing only a few years ago. |
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Heading into the town centre, we explore the Waltzing Matilda museum, the only museum in the world dedicated to a song. Every version of the song (record, tape, CD, muscial score) ever known is displayed here. There are numerous other historic exhibits here as well. |
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From Winton we take the very long road back to Longreach, passing endless fields of flat land with thunderstorms threatening, though we don't get rained on until we arrive back in the early evening. |
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