On our journey south through Northern Queensland
It is our intention to visit a number of touristy places and businesses. Our route from Mt Isa was through Cloncurry, Julia Creek (one overnight stop), Richmond and Hughenden. We then travelled south to Winton, some part of the highway was the Dinosaur route, Hughenden was awash with amazing dinosaur statues.
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| Cloncurry |
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| Julia Creek |
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| Julia Creek |
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| Hughenden |
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| Hughenden |
We booked a place at the back of the Winton Hotel, where they allowed caravans to stay for $10 per night with the use of their outside toilet and shower. We decided to stay for 2 nights as we intended to take a tour to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs. We decided to try the food at the hotel opposite ours as it looked much busier, with a few Grey Nomads dining there. It was very good and very reasonable too. We walked around the small town and took photographs of the statue of Banjo Patterson. This is the place, apparently, where he first sang "Waltzing Matilda"
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The next morning we were picked up in a 4 x 4 and taken to a remote area about 24kms out of Winton to experience the centre of the Age of the Dinosaur. We heard the amazing story of the family who own this amazing place.
In 1999 David Elliott, discovered the fossilised bone of what was, at the time, Australia’s largest dinosaur while mustering sheep on his property Belmont near Winton. This bone was later identified as part of a giant femur from a Cretaceous sauropod that roamed the Winton area 95 million years ago.[4] Following the discovery of more fossils during digs held in conjunction with the Queensland Museum, David and Judy Elliott called a public meeting in Winton on 17 August 2002 in view of establishing a dinosaur museum at Winton. On 25 October 2002, ‘Australian Age of Dinosaurs Incorporated’, commenced operations as a not-for-profit organisation aimed at ensuring future dinosaur digs and the preparation and conservation of dinosaur fossils from the Winton Formation [5] could continue. The organisation, with support from a strong member’s volunteer base, began the initial stages of developing a major tourism attraction in the form of a dinosaur museum so that the discoveries could be preserved for perpetuity and be available to the public. While mustering sheep in March 2005, David Elliott discovered a new dinosaur site on Belmont and a subsequent dig in September uncovered the remains of one of Australia’s most complete sauropod skeletons. A total of 17 pallets of fossil bones trapped in a fine siltstone rock were recovered and stored in the Belmont shed. The dinosaur was nicknamed "Wade", in posthumous honour of Australian Palaeontologist Dr Mary Wade who died during the dig. In late 2005, the discovery of a partial sauropod humerus on Elderslie Station, near Winton, led to a series of digs held by the AAOD Museum and the recovery of two dinosaur skeletons preserved together, one being a sauropod skeleton and the other a theropod.
The sauropod was nicknamed "Matilda" and the theropod was nicknamed "Banjo" – both in honour of Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson and his classic poem "Waltzing Matilda". In mid-2006, David and Judy Elliott opened an "Australian Age of Dinosaurs" temporary fossil preparation facility in their shed at Belmont which was known locally as the "Prep Shed". It was here that fossil preparation was carried out by a small group of staff preparators and volunteers who were accommodated in the station’s Jackeroo and Shearers Quarters. Work commenced on Wade and expanded to include the bones of "Banjo" and "Matilda" as each dig produced further fossils. This work continued for almost three years and incorporated the help of over 100 volunteers. It was during this time that the ‘Free Wade’ project began, supported by an Australian Geographic fundraiser and private donations from numerous volunteers, members and supporters. In September 2006, Peter and Carol Britton, owners of Mt Landsborough Station near Winton donated 1,400 hectares of mesa or "Jump-Up" country to AAOD as a site for the future Museum. Over the following three years funding was raised from Desert Channels Queensland to enable the new site to be fenced. The Winton Shire Council built a new gravel road to the top of the Jump-Up and the Queensland Government contributed $500,000 toward a fossil preparation facility, staff cottages and water and power amenities. The Prep Shed at Belmont was closed and all fossils and equipment relocated to the Jump-Up in early 2009. The new facilities were opened to the public in July 2009 by the Queensland Premier Anna Bligh as part of Queensland’s 150th year (Q 150) celebrations. AAOD Inc was restructured in June 2008 to become a not-for-profit Company Limited by Guarantee with a board of up to nine directors. The new company, Australian Age of Dinosaurs Ltd (AAODL) created a Society of Members (Australian Age of Dinosaurs Society) to carry on the support based work of AAOD Inc with levels of membership including ordinary members and life members, known as "Million Year Members". info from Wikipedia.
During the night we had quite a lot of rain so when we were packing up ready for hitching the caravan we both had very dirty feet and legs. Richard managed to get everything organised for our trip down to Ilfracombe which is a lovely little town west of Longreach. The rain stopped just in time for us to pull out of the car park, the wheels of the both ute and caravan were covered in red mud!! We travelled about 20kms when we were contacted on our two way radio by a truck who told us that one of our windows was open. We both looked for a decent place to pull up, and when we thought we had one, Helen was ready to jump out and go in the van to close the said window! Richard suddenly told me not to move and that we were going to be bogged down if he didn't quickly get the ute on the tarmac. What we didn't realis was that the amount of water that was dumped the previous night hadn't soaked into the ground. Rich, quickly put the ute into 4 wheel drive and with mud flying all over the ute and caravan we managed to get back on the tarmac road! it was a nightmare. As so often happens to us, we only travelled another 10kms and came across a superb pull in with people free camping, it also had a toilet block with outside water tap. This is where we stopped for 2 hours or more to try and wash as much of the red mud off the ute and caravan, see photographs.... we had lots of laughs with people who asked us what had happened.
We eventually continued our journey to Ilfracombe, where, once again we were confronted with a good pitch but a very wet one.
