After breakfast, we drove back the 5km to Cawnpore lookout. We had a steep little jump up to climb to the lookout and picnic area. A lovely view.
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| Cawnpore Lookout |
A little further along the road, we stopped briefly at Middleton. These days just a pub of a village that missed lost out in regional competition with Winton 170 km away at the junction of the Kennedy Development Road and Landsborough highway. European exploration of the Middleton area began with explorer John McKinlay's expedition in search of the missing Burke and Wills expedition in 1862. McKinlay named a watercourse in the area Middleton Creek after his second-in-charge W. Middleton. The Pub was established at the creek crossing as a Cobb & Co changing station on the route between Winton and Boulia. There was even a Post Office opened 1916 (a receiving office had been open from 1889) but it closed in 1968. She's all pretty rustic today. A Cobb & Co coach out the front along with some pretty ancient fuel pumps. Dongas out the back for accommodation.
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| Middleton |
Stopped at Winton for lunch - a deconstructed burger with the lot. Quite nice when it eventually came. The cafe was at the top of Trip Advisors list of places to eat in Winton and we remembered being here before. However this time the girl serving was very frustrated. She was on her own (obviously understaffed) and there were quite a few people eating (a nice outdoor area near the Royal Theatre). We felt sorry for her and she did a good job considering.
Checked out the Musical Fence. We had been there with our granddaughter, Aylee some years ago on. It's still fascinating, especially for kids but is looking a little tired. Doesn't look like anything has been done to it since it was built in 2003.
The trip with Aylee (6 years ago) had been a Dinosaur Discovery trip and we had been to Muttaburra, Hughenden, Richmond and to Lark Quarry. We had also intended to go to the Age of Dinosaurs but the road in was flooded. No such problem today and they have obviously done quite a bit of roadworks to ensure that doesn't happen too often.
What an amazing site - right on the top of a jump up with fantastic views across the countryside.
We went on two of their tours. One with Grace ("I'm not a scientist, I'm just a sheep cocky who likes to talk!) to the Fossil Preparation Laboratory where we were explained the procedure of resuming dinosaur skeletons (There are lots of volunteers involved, some with what looked like dentist drills cleaning the stone away from the dinosaur bones.
The Second tour was to the Collection Room which houses the only known specimens of Australia's largest, and most complete carnivorous dinosaur - Australovenator wintonensis, nicknamed "Banjo", as well as Australia's most complete sauropod Diamantinasaurus matildae, nicknamed "Matilda" and Savannasaurus elliottorum"Wade".
Australian Age of Dinosaurs
Australian Age of Dinosaurs Ltd (AAOD) is a not for profit organisation located in Winton, Queensland and founded by David Elliott and Judy Elliott in 2002. The organisation's activities include operation of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History which holds annual dinosaur digs in the Winton Formation of western Queensland and oversees the year-round operation of Australia's most productive dinosaur fossil preparation laboratory.
Since 2005, the AAOD Museum has accumulated the largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils in the world and holds the holotype specimens of Diamantinasaurus matildae ("Matilda"), Savannasaurus elliottorum ("Wade"), Australovenator wintonensis ("Banjo"), Australia's most complete theropod skeleton and Ferrodraco lentoni, the first pterosaur to be named from the Winton Formation.
The museum is open to the public daily from April to end September and open six days (closed Sundays) from October to end March.
The site of the Museum was designated a Dark-sky preserve, the first International Dark-Sky Sanctuary in Australia, in 2019.
Camp tonight was at Crawford Creek on our way towards Longreach. Lot's of people camping here tonight with the main camping area full and the overflow area fairly crowded as well. We found a nice quiet spot out the back in a dry creek bed next to the railway line - the advantages of having an "off-road" van. Lots of birds, including large flocks of budgerigars and some great photos of a White-browed Wood Swallow.
