Winton

Winton

Even though Winton was a small town it had a lot to do.
Following is alist of things we did.

Lark Quarry-- Footprints of a dinosaur Stampedee
It was amazing to see the fossilised Dinosaur footprints. It made it more real that there were Dinosaurs around 95 million years ago in Australia.

Dinosaur Footprints

On the right hand side of the
picture is about 4 footprints
from the large dinosaur.

Lark Quarry
Building that protects the dinosaur footprints

"Lark Quarry, in outback Australia, is currently the only recorded dinosaur stampede on earth. In this place, around 95 million years ago, a large herd of small two legged dinosaurs gathered on the banks of a forest lake to drink.
The herd was stalked by a large Theropod – four tonnes of sharp-clawed, meat-eating dinosaur. The herd panicked, stampeding across the muddy flats to escape the Theropod’s hungry jaws.
A record of those few terrifying minutes is cast in more than 3300 fossilised footprints. The footprints tell us about a cooler, wetter world, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the mammal’s time is yet to come.

The Trackways were discovered in 1962 by Glen Seymour. They were later excavated in the 1970s, and a shelter was put up to protect them in the 1980s. A new conservation building was built in 2002 to preserve the Trackways."

Corfield and Fitzmaurice Museum--- Had the Diorama of the stampede.

These are the dinosaurs that made the
footprints in the stampede.

Bins throughout Winton are Dinosaur
feet.

Age of Dinosaurs-- Fossil preperation centre

This tour was very interesting because we were shown how the bones are found, stored and then cleaned and put back together. It is the largest Fossil preperation centre in Australia.
They dig for dinosaur bones for only three weeks of the year because that gives them many years work cleaning and studying them.

Some bones that they have found.

Fossil preperation centre
Working on the bones.

Musical Fence-- Winton is home to world's first permanent musical fence installation in the world. Accompanied by a junkyard band, the Musical Fence is free and available for everyone to use

Careena having a go

Luke on the drum kit.

Alanna having a go

Waltzing Matilda Centre-- Only Centre dedicated to a song. The song was first peformed at Winton.

Banjo Paterson
with the words to Waltzing Matilda

Kids being jumbucks

Arno's Wall -- Made from junk he found at the tip.
                         The wall has everything in it from typewrites, sewing machines, motorbikes to the kitchen sink.

Royal Open air Theatre-- Originally established in 1918, the historic Royal Theatre offers a rare opportunity to enjoy the movies the old-fashioned way – laid back in canvas seats under the stars. The Open Air Theatre is now also home to the World’s Largest Deck Chair.

The largest deckchair in the world.

We were more impressed with Winton than Mt Isa.

After Winton we made our way to Hughenden, another town that specialises in Dinosaur Fossils. We went to the visitor information centre and had a look through their museum.

Luke being a dinosaur

Muttaburrasaurus

Fossils

The fossil at the back looking like a cupcake
is a dinosaur egg.
Some at the front are eggs too.

Fossilised crab

After looking through the museum we continued on to Porcupine Gorge National Park where we camped for the night. When we arrived it was late in the afternoon but the kids wanted to walk down to the river for a swim. The water was cold but they enjoyed sliding down the moss covered rocks into the water. By the time we walked back up to our caravan it was getting dark.
The following pictures are of the gorge.

Todd showing off

this is known as the pyramid