The Dinosaur Trail

 

We stayed at a caravan park in Hughenden and began our three-part adventure through the Dinosaur Trail. First, we went to the Flinders Discovery Centre. This Centre houses a full skeletal replica of a Muttaburrasaurus as well as the Porcupine Gorge Light and Sound Show, Shearing the Stragglers display and other fossil and gem collections with some historical memorabilia and much more.

 

Richmond is situated on the Overlander's Way halfway between Townsville and Mt Isa the town is located on the banks of  Queensland's longest river, the Flinders, and is known for its marine fossils, recreational Lake Fred Tritton and bougainvillea lined streets, parks and gardens. Here, we visited the second part to Australia’s Dinosaur Trail, Kronosaurus Korner.

 

 

 

The friendly, picturesque town of Winton, has strong links to Waltzing Matilda, Qantas, and dinosaurs. It is probably best known as the place where ‘Banjo’ Paterson wrote Australia’s unofficial national anthem “Waltzing Matilda” in 1895. Just as significantly, the first board meeting of Qantas was held at the Winton Club in 1921, marking Winton as the Birthplace of Qantas. However, long before indigenous Australians and the white settlers walked in Winton, the dinosaurs called this land home.

 

 

 

 

The final part of the Dinosaur trail is a visit to Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways. This site is the world's only recorded evidence of a dinosaur stampede. The Trackways are the inspiration behind stampede scene in Steven Spielberg's movie "Jurassic Park". Unfortunately we didn't have time to drive the 220km return trip to the site. We only stayed in Winton overnight and to be honest, we were a bit dinosuared out! We decided that a visit to the Waltzing Matilda Centre would be more enjoyable.

Just before we left, we went to the famous Winton Musical Fence. It is a wire fence that can be played as a musical instrument and it is the first permanent musical fence installation in the world. There we all pretended we were rock stars in our own Junk Yard Band!

We camped behind the beautiful North Gregory Hotel where Waltzing Matilda was first performed in 1895. Behind the hotel was an amazing sculpture called Arno's Wall. Arno's wall is a strange mixture of art and architecture, which is made up of a mixture of junk cemented into the brick wall. Some of the many junk items were rusted lawnmower parts, boat propellers, vintage typewriters and sewing machines and even a couple of complete motorbikes!

 

 

  

The morning of Dan's birthday, we drove to Walkabout Creek in the hope of having lunch at the Walkabout Creek Pub from the movie Crocodile Dundee. Unfortunately the pub was closed!! So we got take away from the roadhouse and ate it on the front veranda of the pub!

 

 

We stopped at a road side rest area that night and celebrated Dan's birthday with a cake, candles and some help from fellow travellers to sing Happy Birthday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We called in to Mt Isa to stock up the caravan. We were really surprised at the size of the township. It is like a small city which has almost every shop and business you can imagine. As we got out of the car we realised that the town smells industrial. The mines are very close to the town centre and you can hear, feel and smell them.

 

We continued through to a little town called Camooweal. Here we met up with our good friends, Julie and Rasmus and their three kids. We camped next to a billabong and spent nearly two weeks doing absolutely nothing!

 

Julie and Rasmus are on a 12 month trip around Australia and they began their journey with us in Victoria in February.

It was really hot while we were there and we were camped without power or water so the kids spent time playing in the billabong and Dan strung up my hammock between two trees and I spent hours reading my book, while Dan worked. Then as the caravan heated up to over 45 degrees, it was Dan's turn to relax in the hammocks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julie and Rasmus are now heading in the opposite direction towards the east coast. The next time we see them, they will have finished their journey and will be back home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dance Brolga, Dance!

Crossing the Atherton Tablelands we saw, some of the prettiest scenery so far on our trip. We were surrounded by green rolling hills, covered in big black and white dairy cows, then we were driving through thick rainforests, then cute little villages.

 

We stopped at Ravenshoe, a town that boasts 'the highest pub in Queensland". We HAD to stop there and have a counter meal and a cold beer.

Pulling into the BP at Mount Surprise, I went inside to enquire about staying at the caravan park behind the petrol station. I met the rudest man I have ever encountered! I don’t know if I caught him on a bad day or he was just grumpy. The only reason we decided to stay there was because my dad had just told us about a Dancing Brolga who lived at the park.

We chose a site near the fence, climbed out of the car and took some carrots over to feed the miniature ponies and watch the brolga put on a show for us.

 

 

 

 

It had been a long and hot day in the car, so we put on our bathers and headed for the pool. Will, Dan and Zac were already in, and before I joined them I pressed the button to turn on the spa. As soon as the bubbles started a huge cane toad jumped out of the pool. Needless to say, I no longer felt the need to go swimming!

 

Up early the next morning, we headed to the Undara Volcanic National Park. The area is situated within the McBride volcanic province and contains 164 volcanoes, vents and cones. The lava tubes are regarded amongst the largest and longest on the planet. The word Undara is Aboriginal and means ‘a long way’. The volcanic activity that formed the tubes occurred approximately 190,000 years ago and the volcano Undara expelled massive amounts of lava onto the surrounding Atherton Tableland. In total it was estimated that over 23 billion cubic meters of lava that was released covering an area of 55 km2.

 

We spent a couple of very relaxing days camped next to mum and dad on the banks of Fletcher Creek. The boys had a lovely time jumping in the river and floating down to where Dad and I sat on the grass fishing.

 

One morning I woke early and managed to catch sight of a magical sunrise.

 

 

On our last morning with mum and dad, before they continued south to be home for the birth of my brothers' baby, we had a father's day breakfast in Charters Towers.

 

Charter's Towers was founded in the 1870s when gold was discovered by chance at Towers Hill on Christmas Eve 1871 by 12-year-old Aboriginal boy, Jupiter Mosman. Jupiter was with a small group of prospectors, searching for gold, when their horses bolted after a flash of lightning. While he was searching Jupiter found both the horses and a nugget of gold in a creek at the base of Towers Hill.

The Charters Towers gold field produced over 200 tons of gold from 1871-1917, and was Australia's richest major field.

 

 

We are now heading west back to Outback Australia to catch up with friends and explore the Northern Territory!