Margot and Jocelyn had a zoom art class this morning so we delayed our departure from Longreach until the class finished at around 10:15 am. Jan, Helen and I went into town and filled the car and picked up a few odds and ends along the way. We brought morning tea back with us. We can highly recommend the apple buns from the local bakery!  We set off towards Winton about 10:45 am.  The road and the travelling was very flat and straight, lots of tufted grasses, short sparsely leaved trees and very rocky. A tough looking environment for people and animals.

About 50 km from Winton we started to see a tableland plateau off to our left. We think on the map we’ve identified this as part of Bladensburg National Park.  About 23 km from Winton is the turn off to the Age of Dinosaurs exhibition. We started heading towards the tablelands and about 10 km from the main highway. As we climbed the mesa, the landscape changed to large boulders and the tabletop gave us a magnificent view of the surrounding plains and grasslands. 

I have to admit I was a bit ambivalent about spending time at a dinasaur exhibit. They’re not really my thing but how often will I visit Winton?  The temperature was rising by this time. It was about 33°C and feeling pretty hot. Part of the Age of Dinosaurs exhibition involves a walk in the canyon. We weren’t really looking forward to that at 33°  but we had been told that it was worth it. We didn’t do the whole tour as we were short on time but the parts that we did were excellent. One of the exhibits is fossilised remains of a creek bed which shows the footsteps of two giant dinosaurs and many other much smaller dinosaurs. You need a bit of imagination to see them!  The story is that the local grazier saw what he thought were small dinosaur foot prints and asked the Queensland Museum to identify them. When they came out to identify the small footprints they were very excited to spot what the grazier assumed were erosion marks but were in fact large fossilised footprints of the giant Sauropods.  Because the footprints had been exposed and were beginning to be eroded away, the decision was made to move a 54 metre slab of rock about 60kms to the position they’re in now in order to preserve them. A massive job!  Now they’re protected undercover in an air-conditioned room. The setting for the exhibit is really beautiful and the buildings they have created to house the exhibit blend beautifully with their surroundings.  It was worth a visit. 

After a bite of lunch we drove on into Winton where, as we’re only staying one night, we decided we should call in to the Matilda Centre before it closed. Winton is all about their connection to Banjo Paterson and the writing of the famous Waltzing Matilda, which he apparently did at Dagworth Station just outside Winton. We only had time to see half the exhibit but will go back in the morning and finish it off. The Waltzing Matilda Centre is quite new since the old one was destroyed by fire in 2015. 

After we left the Matilda Centre we went to the North Gregory Hotel and listened to a poet/historian, funnily enough named Gregory North, give us the story of Banjo Patterson and the writing of the song in tale and verse. His presentation and knowledge was excellent but his showmanship was not quite up to the same level.

Dinner at the Tattersalls Hotel finished off our day for us. Winton is another town with big old hotels lining the main street. The dinosaurs have been a big boost for the town which is now looking a bit more prosperous than what I remember from 20 years ago.