Winton

I am sitting at the keyboard, wondering how to start this story, when I hear my neighbour who is getting ready to leave, yell to his travelling companion "sorry mate, shouldn't be long, the bloody missus had to go to the dunny!" Yes folks, we are in Outback Queensland!!

Welcome to Winton.

Where Qantas started.

We have arrived at Winton, 184 kms west from Longreach, and what a rich history it has. Our national airline, Qantas, was founded here, the first board meeting being held at the Winton Club. The great Aussie poet, A.B. "Banjo" Patterson, penned that song called Waltzing Matilda right here, and the song had its first recital here. And, it is now all about dinosaurs, so we have a busy few days ahead of us. We are booked into the Matilda Country Tourist Park, and are we glad we booked, as every night it is full. It is dry, it is dusty, the water stinks of sulphur, but apart from that it's lovely! More on the caravan park later, but first it is time to get set up on a site that has some grass, albeit brown, then it's off to the Visitor Information Centre,which is part of the Waltzing Matilda Centre. The boss Macca, is so enthusiastic, and when we tell him we have a few days, he is beside himself with joy, as we'll get to see lots. He steers us into a "Gold Pass" that will get us into all the sights and save us some money as well.

The North Gregory Hotel.

Winton Hotel.

Leaving the Visitor Information Centre we do a walk through town. Actually, it is more like a pub crawl, as the main street is dominated by the three large pubs. The North Gregory Hotel is the most famous having been burnt down a few times, the last time being rebuilt in the art deco style. It was a high class bush hotel, with formal dining room. Today it even has a small caravan park out the back, where you can stay for $10.00 and get 2 free schooners, as long as you have a meal in the pub. It fills up pretty early! The other famous pub is in the suburbs a few blocks out of town. It is the Winton Hotel, a grand old building.

The outdoor theatre. Note
world's largest deck chair back left.

There are some amazing stores. Searles is unbelievable. It is the Lotto Agent, a hardware shop, a dress shop, a menswear shop, a shoe shop, a gift shop, haberdashery and lots more! The stock goes up to the roof, and you have to walk side ways down the aisles! Also, there is a genuine open air theatre complete with canvas deck chairs. They have a show on some fairly random nights, and they show old movies, cartoons and news reels. Carolyn was mortified there was nothing on while we were there. Looks like we'll have to go back. There is a bakery, some galleries, a Newsagent, a dress shop specialising in Ladies Race wear, for all the Outback race meetings around here, and a few coffee spots. We tried both the cafe at the North Gregory and the Waltzing Matilda Centre, and both were good. We missed the camel races by a couple of weeks, Bugger!

Elvis in the Outback.

Mel & Sue on Tour.

Back at the caravan park, we got chatting to our neighbours over a drink, when a young lady comes by on a pushbike. She tells us about the nightly show, put on at the old tin shed near the office, and invites us down. It's on every night, and different every night, and you only have to put a donation in a tin. Well the show was an absolute scream. Two girls, Mel and Sue, put on a show that is all Aussie bush poetry and funny yarns. Mel is the poet, and has won numerous awards, and Sue is just one of those rare infectiously funny people. They took the Micky out of everything and everyone. We had tears rolling down our cheeks, and when Mel recited the Man From Snowy River in its entirety, there was a tear in many an eye. When Sue came out dressed as Elvis, she did her version of "In the Ghetto", which was called "It's a Gecko", I was laughing so hard I thought I'd burst. When she finished, she announced that the next night the real Elvis was doing the show, and brought out one of the best Elvis Impersonators ever seen, and sure enough the next night we all gathered in the Tin Shed for "Elvis in the Outback". He must have done 30 or more songs and had all the girls swooning. We all had a fantastic couple of hours, an the next night we backed up and did it all again with Mel & Sue, and true to their promise it was all different material.

Off to the Dinosaur Stampede.

Easy to see signs.

The Trackways building
at Lark Quarry.

Apart from all the evening things happening at the caravan park, there is also lots of dinosaur stuff to see. Firstly, it is worth noting, that discovery of dinosaur remains only started to happen in Australia over the last 50 years, and in a big way in the last 30 years. It was thought that all the big dinosaurs all inhabited only the northern hemisphere. That all changed with finding around Winton. Firstly, we drove out to the Lark Quarry Conservation Park, sight of the world's only known dinosaur stampede, which took place around 95 million years ago! It is a 250km round trip on well formed roads that are sometimes bitumen, and sometimes gravel. From the thousands of footprints they have

Large and Small
dinosaur footprints.

theorised that a large carnivorous dinosaur, has chased a number of different sized but smaller dinosaurs around a water hole, resulting in a stampede of the smaller ones. The footprints became preserved. If you want all the technical stuff, you can Google Lark Quarry Dinosaur Stampede. It is an amazing story. The whole thing is housed in a building so as to help preserve the site. The Trackways building itself is Eco friendly, and almost as good as the stampede. A guide runs tours on the hour from 9.00am to 4.00pm, and the whole thing is very well done. It is just so hard to think that this all happened 95 million years ago! 

Carolyn with Banjo.

Matilda's front leg.

The other unbelievable attraction is the Age of Dinosaurs Museum, a purpose built private museum, that is the most productive fossil preparation laboratory in the southern hemisphere. It is the brainchild of local grazier and palaeontologist David Elliott. It is he, who put the "no big dinosaurs in the southern hemisphere" theory to rest, when he found  the big bones of "Matilda", "Clancy" and "Banjo". He built the Museum on the top of a "Jump Up", the quaint name give to the small hills that frequent the area. It is set on the edge of the jump up with

Distance markers on the road to
Age of Dinosaurs.

panoramic views across the vast plains. A separate building houses the working fossil preparation laboratory. They use a mixture of full time, and volunteer staff to undertake the painstaking restoration work. They have discovered three entirely new species of Dinosaur, and reckon they have 25 years of preparation work stored in their lab! Again there are tours that take in both buildings, run by passionate people. When it is all over, you can relax at the nice cafe and just ponder the stories you have just heard about events 100 million years ago, as you gaze out across the plains. Google Age of Dinosaurs Museum for so much more detail.

John with Banjo Patterson.

The waltzing Matilda Centre is simply a fantastic museum. It tells the history of how the song Waltzing Matilda was written, first performed and became an anthem for Australians through two world wars, many major national events. The rendition by John Williamson, in a darkened theatre featuring an animated display, is quite moving. All through the museum are rooms full of Winton's history. The presentation of the hundreds of exhibits is as good as at any museum we have ever seen. The stories of bravery, human suffering and courage will warm and break your heart, and some of the yarns and characters that have lived out here, will have you in fits of laughter. When we looked at our watches, we had been inside for 3 hours, and it only seemed like minutes. Don't miss it if ever you visit Winton.

"Once a jolly swagman......

So there you have it, a busy schedule in Winton. The weather has been magnificent, and we have had a great time here. Let me finish by telling you of a brief encounter with a bushy we just met. He'd been trekking along one of the numerous tracks out west, miles from anywhere. He had skin like leather and was covered in dust as he came into the Roadhouse. He looked at us and said, "I've been out in the bush for a couple of weeks and haven't heard any news. Please tell me someone shot Kevin Rudd!!!" I sadly replied, no. He simply replied Bugger, and headed for the bar.