Wednesday, 9 October 2024
It was glorious in Longreach this morning as we were packing the car. It was going to be much warmer later on, but at 7.30am it was beautiful. All the more beautiful with Cathy saying that a FB friend had posted that it was only 1°C in Melbourne this morning but felt like minus 1°C. Not sorry to be missing out on that!! So far the heat up here is dry. Without humidity added, it has not been too unpleasant.
Today’s leg of the Matilda Way was still on the Landsborough Highway (A2). Motoring along at 110/kph we gradually caught up to a ute with flashing lights on the top of the cab. When we first caught glimpses of it ahead of us we assumed it was going to be an Escort Vehicle for a large load. We kept gaining on it gradually but without ever glimpsing a vehicle that it could be escorting. Why are it’s lights flashing? Is there any reason to NOT overtake it?
After sitting behind it for a little while trying to assess if the lights were about any risk, Bernie eventually overtook the ute stating that he wants a set of flashing lights for the roof of the truck. I think this was just to wind me up a bit as I think the truck is already kitted out with more than enough bogan accessories. For this trip Bernie has changed the wheels – something about smaller wheels, bigger tyres – and added a snorkel.
There were LOTS of birds of prey circling this morning. I studied our copy of the Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds – again – trying to decide if the birds are black kites or maybe little eagles? Still leaning towards black kites because there are so many of them and the guide says that black kites are renowned for flocking around food sources like slaughterhouses. Today though it is roadkill. Lots of roadkill. This section of road has been the worst for quantity of dead roos that we have encountered since the Adventure Way between Cunnamulla and Eulo.
This morning’s section of road was also one of the worst that we have driven on so far for roadworks. It was a bit tedious that roadworks restrictions were still in place in some sections only because the new lines have not been marked. There was no working actually going on and it was clear that new bitumen patches had been applied. Just because it’s not marked up with the new ripple strip we were supposed to slow to 60/kph in some places. Yet in other sections the road was just the same with new bitumen patches and no lines, but no roadworks speed restriction in place?? Very inconsistent.
The highlight of this morning’s drive was seeing a big lizard – probably a lace or sand monitor/goanna? – cross the road near Chorregon. Cathy and Steve had to stop for a big lizard a few days ago to enable it to safely complete its crossing. This morning the lizard was well onto the other side of the road as we approached (fortunately with no traffic heading south) so we didn’t have to stop to let it cross. Its timing was good!
We passed a sign to say that we are still in the Lake Eyre Catchment Zone but now in the Georgina/Diamantina Rivers Region. Driving along the highway a rugged looking mesa plateau started to loom on the horizon to the north-west. With not much marked on the map, we wondered if it was the Forsyth Range/Bladensburg National Park?
We reached the turn off to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History and started heading towards the tabletop ‘mountain’ that we had been observing. The road was flat, flat, flat with floodway dips and then, all of a sudden, a sign welcomed us to the Jump-Up and the road was climbing up onto the tabletop.
We now know that the Jump-Up is approximately 270m above sea level and stands 75m above the surrounding land and forms part of a mesa formation called the Vindex Range. So, nothing to do with that Forsyth Range marked on our touring atlas. Like much of the area around Winton, the Jump-Up is part of the Winton Formation which is dat3ed around 95-98 million years old. Because the cap-rock surface is solid rock it has resisted erosion while deep weathering has eroded the surrounding countryside.
We arrived at the museum just on 9.15am so didn’t cut it fine for our 10.00am tour. Last night, on what Cathy described as the most mobile unfriendly website EVER, we (Cathy) managed to book four Two Day VIP passes so we could visit the museum this morning and the Dinosaur Stampede at Lark Quarry Conservation Park tomorrow. We wandered into the museum where we were given tickets for this morning’s tours and lanyards with our Two Day VIP passes on them.
Our first stop was the Fossil Preaparation Laboratory. We had to take a 500-metre stroll in extreme heat between the Reception Centre and the Laboratory where we were met by Tennyson for our guided tour. He walked us through bays that described the discovery, collection and preservation of the fossils so that they can be scientifically studied and displayed. Out the back in the lab we were able to observe volunteers using pneumatic scribes to delicately remove the rock that has preserved the fossils so that they can be stabilized, properly examined and identified.
We wandered back to the Reception Centre where our next guided tour was in the Collection Room which houses the holotype-fossil bones of Australia’s most complete sauropod dinosaur, Diamantinasaurus, the sauropod Savannasaurus, the most complete theropod dinosaur, Australovenator, crocodile Confractosuchus and pterosaur Ferrodraco. A holotype specimen is the official representative of a scientifically documented biological species, living or extinct.
Next, we had to board a shuttle to be driven over to the Gondwana Stars Observatory and ‘March of the Titanosaurs’ Exhibition by our guide, Abbie. We weren’t taken into the observatory as part of this tour, but Abbie told us that the observatory was designed to look like a meteorite in the middle of a simulated impact crater. This is to reflect the relationship between large meteor impacts and world extinction events. We were also told that the observatory has been designated Australia’s first International Dark-Sky Sanctuary and that nighttime tours of the observatory can be booked separately.
With the most birds of prey that we have seen anywhere flocked overhead, Bernie asked Abbie if she knew what they are. Kites, she said. When asked which one, she confirmed that they are black kites. Which talked with what I had decided from studying the field guide.
From the observatory it was a short walk to the ‘March of the Titanosaurs’ Exhibition. This has to be the museum’s most impressive achievement. They have relocated a 54-metre-long section of creek bed from Snake Creek to a custom-built building to preserve the tracks that were discovered on a property near Winton. These tracks were made when a herd of sauropods roamed western Queensland at a time when the landscape was covered in temperate rainforest and muddy billabongs. In addition to the sauropods there is evidence of smaller theropods, ornithopods and crocodiles.
Back outside in the heat we meandered along the elevated concrete pathway through Dinosaur Canyon. The canyon exhibits recreate life as it would have appeared about 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. With this tour now concluded Abbie drove us back to the Reception Centre where we once again ate sandwiches that were close to the last ones available for the day!
We drove back out to the highway and continued west to the Winton Outback Motel. We checked in and unpacked the truck before heading back out to find the sign that we wanted to photograph at sunset. The one closest to our accommodation is just a ‘Winton Way Out West’ sign so Bernie drove the truck under it for a photo. We tracked the Birthplace of Qantas sign, featuring the Avro biplane, to the other side of the railway line so planned to return for sunset later on.
We picked up some fruit for tomorrow morning from the ShopRite supermarket. Fruit and veg was a bit light on with the truck due tomorrow. We managed to pick up a few things AND there were some Cornettos in the freezer!
Last night we were looking at some photos of tonight’s motel with some brolgas on the front lawn. The brolgas duly turned up about 5.30pm so we headed out with our cameras. Talking with the owner, who only took over a couple of months ago, the pair of them turn up pretty much every afternoon for a feed … something that the former owner started. They arrive about 5.30pm and peck on the window to be fed. They are given a parrot seed mix with some extra corn in it. After a feed, they fly off home a bit after 6.00pm
About 6.10pm, with the brolgas still out the front, we were on our way to get our sunset silhouette photo. Sunset tonight was at 6.30pm because, of course, there’s no Eastern Daylight Saving Time in Queensland. All that lovely sunlight is at 6.00am in the mornings!
For dinner tonight we walked around to the Winton Hotel because Google rated it the best of the pubs in town.
