The journey from Longreach to Winton (180km) didn’t take too
long, and we were there before midday. We had been anticipating more road works
on the way in due to the recent floods, but there was only one section within
10 kms of town where we had to wait a while to get through. Once we had checked
in and set up our trailer, we headed to the new Waltzing Matilda centre, which
only reopened a few weeks ago after being rebuilt following a fire in 2015. The
new $23 million centre, is very fancy and high-tech, with great, informative
displays, and especially considering how much would have been lost in the fire,
they have managed to amass an impressive collection of historical artefacts.
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| The new Waltzing Matilda Centre, Winton, QLD |
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| Waltzing Matilda Centre, Winton, QLD |
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| Waltzing Matilda Centre, Winton, QLD |
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| Waltzing Matilda Centre, Winton, QLD |
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| Waltzing Matilda Centre, Winton, QLD |
Among the centre's massive old-fashioned bottle collection, we found these!
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| Waltzing Matilda Centre, Winton, QLD |
We spent a couple of hours at the centre, and then made a
quick visit to the Corfield & Fitzmaurice General Merchant store across the
street, where it is now a small museum of minerals and history of the local
area. We stayed at the Matilda Country Caravan Park, where we had
a nice roast dinner, and stayed for a show put on by a bush poet, Gregory
North. He was very entertaining, funny and impressive how he manages to
remember all those lines! He also has a wide range of accents perfected!
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| Corfield
& Fitzmaurice General Merchant Store Museum, Winton, QLD |
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| Corfield & Fitzmaurice General Merchant Store Museum, Winton, QLD |
For anyone reading this who hasn’t heard of Winton, it is
one of three towns which form a triangle, and the region is basically the
dinosaur capital of Australia! In this region a lot of dinosaur bones and fossils
have been found, plus the world’s only evidence of a dinosaur stampede – 3,300
footprints at Lark Quarry Conservation Park. The exposed footprints are
protected from the elements by the visitor centre building built around and
over them. We went to a session which included a presentation about the history
of discovering and uncovering the footprints, and a animation of how it is
believed they were created and what the stampede would have looked like. Then
we got to see the footprints. It was quite amazing to be standing within metres
of these footprints which are believed to be around 95 million years old.
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| Lark Quarry Conservation Park, near Winton, QLD |
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| Dinosaur Stampede, Lark Quarry Conservation Park, near Winton, QLD |
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| Dinosaur Stampede, Lark Quarry Conservation Park, near Winton, QLD |
In the afternoon we visited the Bladensburg National Park,
just out of Winton. Probably the most exciting part was on the road in, where I
spotted several AUSTRALIAN PRATINCOLES! When I got out of the car to photograph
them, right next to the road I startled some LITTLE BUTTON-QUAILS. Two lifers in
one spot and we weren’t really even in the national park yet! We visited the old
homestead, and saw some budgies, cockatiels, and white-browed woodswallows,
then continued on through the park to the camping area where we had booked to
stay the following night. In the end we thought we had seen enough and that it
wasn’t worth it for us to move here and camp the following night, so we decided
to head to Boulia a day earlier than planned.
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| Little Button-quail, Bladensburg NP, Winton, QLD |
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| Australian Pratincole, Bladensburg NP, Winton, QLD |
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| Brown Falcon, Bladensburg NP, Winton, QLD |
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| Budgerigars, Bladensburg NP, Winton, QLD |
The drive from Winton to Boulia was off to a slow start as
we struggled to get petrol! Of the three servos in town, one had been out of
ULP since we arrived two days earlier, one didn’t open until 9am (it was a
Sunday morning), and the other was supposed to be open at 8am, but no one
showed up until half an hour later! If you’re travelling through this region,
play it safe and fill up the night before if you can if you want to get an
early start! Eventually we set off, after getting some breakfast and sandwiches
for lunch from the excellent bakery in Winton. On the way to Boulia we saw two
groups of three bustards, the first of which we zoomed past before I’d even
seen it, and the second group we managed to get a look at and some photos. We also
saw a few brolgas – always tricky to get close enough to for photos!
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| Australian Bustard, Winton-Boulia Road, QLD |
On the way to Boulia we stopped at the Middleton Hotel, one
of the most isolated pubs in Australia, and also the location for movie filming
in recent years.
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| Middleton Hotel, QLD |
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| "Hilton Hotel", Middleton, QLD |
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