Tuesday...19 July 2011

Another big day. We started by going to see the Musical Fence which was designed by a percussionist. It is a wire fence that can be played as a musical intrument. We then took a look at the Winton Truck museum. Himself did enjoy that.

After lunch we went down the main street and checked out the Corfield & Fitzmaurice Building, which is about the oldest one in town and has a display of opal and dinosaur artifacts. Then it was on to the  local open air picture theatre and of course its projection equipment, then to the Gregory Hotel which is where Waltzing Matilda was first performed for a quick drink and then we went to see Arno's Wall.  No idea who Arno is but he has built himself a wall that is over 70 metres long and is studded with old machinery from businesses in Winton and even includes a couple of complete motorbikes!

Moving day tomorrow.......

Monday...18 July 2011

Happy birthday Cindy.
Another big day for us. Up super early to drive 110km down the road to the site of a dinosaur stampede. It is the only place in the world that they have been able to record and preserve the evidence of such a stampede. So there we were, the guide did his thing and then, wow, they let you into the building and you can stand just above but right next to the clearly visible marks in the rock of a dinosaurs footprints. The story goes that two different species that were happy to co-exist were drinking at a waterhole when a meat eating larger dinosaur happened upon them and tried to catch himself a meal of one or more of the smaller dinosaurs. They flocked together then stampeded directly past the bigger one in their rush to get away. There in the rock is the clear tracks and evidence of the event. 95 million years old and we got to see it. Awesome. The other thing I am finding hard to come to grips with is the information that most of Australia was one big rain forest, all green and wet. We are in arid land now and it is hard to do the jump to accept this same area was once a lush green forest with constantly falling rain. And the people talk about global warming, its been happening now for 95 million years!!!!!

When we got back into town we went to the Matilda Centre.

Apparently both Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson came to this area at some stage in their lives. The entire area is mentioned again and again in their various works.

Back to Banjo. He wrote Waltzing Matilda on a property just out of Winton and the first recorded performance of it was at a hotel here in Winton. The hotel still operates, we thought we would drop in for a beer while we are here but so far we have not made it in there. Maybe tomorrow!

The Matilda Centre is a fascinating place, part memorial to the song, part museum of the Winton area. The place is full of information on the song, from its first outing to all the various versions that have been released by all sorts of groups and bands world wide. Did you know that Winston Churchill sang the song to Charles de Gaulle in the presence of Robert Menzies????? How wierd is that? The English PM singing to the President of France in the company of the Prime Minister of Australia. In the museum part is all sorts of extemely old stuff recording the history of Winton, fascinating stuff.



Sunday...17 July 2011

Big day today. Up early to move from Longreach back to Winton.....175kms. Got here just on lunch time and by the time we set up camp it was well and truely lunchtime!!
After lunch we went 25kms out of town to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Fossil Preparation Facility.  Worth the visit if only for the views. To access the centre you have to go up a 'jump up' and the views are stunning. 360 degree big sky views, miles and miles of unlimited panaroma. Stunning. Then when you get to the top of the jump up there is the Dinosaur area.
Very interesting and the lass who is the tour guide really knows her stuff. She merrily sprouted all sorts of information about the finding of dinosaurs here in Australia and in particular here in the Winton area. They have found two distinct dinosaurs in this area, they have called them Banjo and Matilda. Banjo was the smaller of the two and was very nimble and quick and a meat eater, he looks a bit like a raptor. Matilda was a plant eater and much much bigger than Banjo. The guide made them sound most interesting.
The thing that made the hairs on our neck stand up was that we were allowed to put our hands on the actual fossils, the dinosaur bones that are 95 million years old, There they were, just sitting on a table, no ropes around them, no big no touch signs, in fact we were encouraged to feel them and get up close and personal with them....wow.

Now I am sitting in my caravan in the van park listening to a world class Elvis impersonator doing his thing to entertain the residents of this park, way out here in no where land,,,,, incredible.
PS, he is doing ok!

Tuesday...12 July 2011

Cannot believe how cold it was last night. Guess its being inland that does it.......
Another long days travel today. We left Pentland when the sun finally got up at 9.30am and got to Winton at 3.00pm. Long day in the car being bounced all over the road. As inland roads go this one was actually quite a good road but full of potholes and dips that make the van jerk on its hitch which in turn thumps hell out of me.
In the meantime we are in Winton which claims to be the home of Waltzing Matilda. When I went to school it was more famous for having some of the biggest sheep flocks and also the biggest shearing sheds in Australia. Times change.
Along the way we had to go through Hughenden which claims to be part of the dinosaur discovery area here in Australia. Out in the street they have a life size replica of the type of dinosaur being found around there. The locals have called him 'Mutt'.