05 July ~ 13 July 2012 Dinosaur Expedition, Central Queensland

A trip with granddaughter Aylee to discover Australia's dinosaur history

6 July 2012 - Judd's Lagoon to Mitchell (155km)

Yesterday was a 552km drive from Mullumbimby to Judd's Lagoon, a favourite camping spot just off the Warrego Highway and south of Yulebar (60km east of Roma).  It's a large level campground on the edge of the lagoon.

It was a very cold night last night and we woke to find the water frozen in the camper kitchen.  The wine dregs at the bottom of one of the glasses was even frozen.  That's cold.

We're off to Mitchell today.  Called in at Roma to do some shopping and cuddle the large bottle tree.

At Mitchell, we had a soak in the artesian pool before setting up camp for the night at Neil Turner Weir just out of town.

7 July 2012 - Mitchell to Blackall (400km)

Mitchell to Blackall today.  Called in at Augathella and Tambo along the way.

8 July 2012 - Blackall to Muttuburra (259km)

The Black Stump (Blackall) and The Tree of Knowledge (Barcaldine)

The Black Stump - Blackall

Anything west of Blackall is considered 'beyond the Black Stump", in reference to the early surveying of the western regions. 

Nestled on Thistle Street behind the Blackall State School is a petrified wood memorial stump erected in 1988 to commemorate of the bi-centennial of Australia. The site represents the observation used when surveying was done to gain a more accurate basis for maps of Queensland, back in 1888. The surveyors used the stump for the placement of their transit to gain latitude and longitude observations. As time passed any country to the west of Blackall was considered to be 'beyond the Black Stump'.

The Tree of Knowledge - Barcaldine

The Tree of Knowledge site, located in the centre of Barcaldine in central west Queensland, marks the first significant labour struggle in Australia’s history. The 10 metre tall Ghost Gum was used as the meeting place for shearers during their unsuccessful Great Shearer’ Strike in 1891.

At the time the wool industry was the unrivalled economic pillar of the colony of Queensland and the great strike was a tremendous and tumultuous event. Australia was going into its worst-ever depression due to a global financial crisis. Unemployment was rife, the wool price had fallen and shearing was one of the most demanding and lowest paid of occupations. The Great Shearers’ Strike became the first significant struggle between organised labour and capital in Australia. 

Tension arose between the shearers and the pastoralists who proposed reducing the shearers’ wages of £1 per hundred sheep. The shearers protested by going on strike, a crippling blow to the wool industry. Barcaldine—the end of the rail line from Rockhampton, and at the centre of richest pastoral area of the colony—was the focal point for thousands of shearers and bush workers striking for better conditions. 

The unions took radical action to pursue their claims for better pay including setting fire to grass, burning down woolsheds and abducting and intimidating ‘scab’ (non-union) labour. After four months the colonial administration, with the backing of the New South Wales and Queensland governments, bought in the Queensland Colonial Army and the strike was broken. The leaders were tried for conspiracy, rioting and sedition and sent to St Helena prison in Moreton Bay for three years. 

While the strike was unsuccessful, it led to calls for a new political party to represent the interests of working people, which later led to the formation of the Australian Labor party. 

The strike committee issued its final manifesto on 20 June 1891, calling for unionists to register on the electoral rolls. As a result of losing the strike, the unions and others in Queensland formed the Labour Electoral Leagues, which later became the Labour Party and eventually the Australian Labor Party. 

The formation of the Labour Electoral Leagues led to the election in 1892, in Queensland, of a shearer, TJ Ryan, who became the first 'Labour' representative in any government, anywhere in the world. During that strike, as well as the maritime strike of 1890, a crucial and historical connection was forged between the union movement and politics. 

In April 2006 the Tree of Knowledge was poisoned and did not recover. It was felled on 29 July 2007, and a memorial was opened at the site in 2009.

Muttaburra

9 July 2012 - Muttaburra to Richmond (352km)

Flinders Discovery Centre and Museum - Hughenden

This huge display area houses an amazing exhibition of dinosaur fossils from around the world, as well as an extensive and growing display of fossils from the local area. “Hughie” is the star attraction. A life size skeletal replica, this 7 metre Muttaburrasaurus was cast from the original bones of a 110 million year old dinosaur found in the Flinders Shire.

“Hughie” casts a daunting figure as you enter the display area, instantly putting things into perspective. Although this dinosaur is believed to have been a herbivore, you get the impression he is not someone that you would like to have met on a dark night!

Progressing past the imposing figure, prepare to take a step back in time. The hundreds of fossils are superbly displayed in many individual glass cabinets. Well labelled, these fossils range from crustaceous animals in rock to ammonites ranging in size, colour and shape from around the world. Several different dinosaur bones, vertebrae and other exciting fossils are included in the collection.

The Bio Regions display, gives concise information about the four different bioregions in our shire, with the land types, flora and fauna. These Bio Regions include Einasleigh Uplands, Desert Uplands, Mitchell Grass Downs and Gulf Plains.

'Shearing the Stragglers' tells the story of the demise of the sheep industry throughout the Finders Shire. Tales of hardship and change are told through stories of men who lived this gruelling life from 1865 to present day times.

While wandering around the centre enjoy the video on Hughenden and district, with breath taking views of Porcupine Gorge (50 km from Hughendon) and telling the stories of how Hughenden came to be commencing 500 million years ago.

10 July 2012 - Richmond to Winton (229km)

Kronosaurus Korner, Richmond

Kronosarus Korner - Richmond

Visiting Australia’s premier marine fossil museum, Kronosaurus Korner, is an unforgettable prehistoric adventure, where you see some of the most awe inspiring marine creatures such as ‘Penny’ the Richmond plesiosaur – Australia’s best vertebrate fossil, ‘Krono’ Kronosaurus queenslandicus – a 10 metre, giant marine reptile and ‘Wanda’ – Australia’s largest fossilised fish. 

Although the museum has mostly marine creatures, there are two dinosaurs; ‘Mia’ Minmi paravertebra – with impressions of its fossilised skin, it is considered to be Australia’s best-preserved dinosaur skeleton and ‘Marlin’s Beastie’ sauropod – a gigantic plant-eating dinosaur.  

The museum offers hand-held audio guides for a self-paced tour, starting with a theatrette presentation where you can step back in time and watch their prehistoric sea monsters come back to life. 

With a modern, fully equipped preparation laboratory, visitors to the museum can view fossils being processed (via a glass viewing window). The preparation techniques carried out at Kronosaurus Korner are of a world-class standard. 

The Musical Fence - Winton

11 July 2012 - Winton (To Lark Quarry and back)

Lark Quarry

Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways

95 million years ago Lark Quarry was part of a great river plain, with sandy channels, swamps, and lakes brimming with freshwater mussels, lungfish, and crocodiles. Rainfall was over a metre per year, so the surrounding lowland forest was lush and green.

On the day our drama unfolds, some 95 million years ago, herds of small two-legged dinosaurs came to drink at the lake. There were at least 150 dinosaurs of two different kinds - carnivorous coelurosaurs about the size of chickens, and slightly larger plant-eating ornithopods, some of them as large as emus.

A huge meat-eating theropod, smaller than a Tyrannosaurus, approached the lake. It slowed, saw the other dinosaurs gathered at the water’s edge and began to stalk, then turned and charged. The stampeding herd of smaller dinosaurs left a chaotic mass of footprints in the mud as they ran to escape.

The site where the dinosaur footprints were found was once a streambed leading into a lake. The water level had dropped, exposing mudflats. When the dinosaurs stampeded, they left perfect footprints in the half-dried and still plastic mud. Sun, wind, and rain would normally destroy tracks like this. But just a few days after the footprints were made, it began to rain and the lake rose gently, covering the tracks with sandy sediments before the mud had dried enough to crack. The next flood buried them below a meter of sand and a meter of mud. Over time, more sediment was laid down. As millions of years passed, the sediment layers were compressed to form rock and a low range eventually formed.

Local Station Manager, Glen Seymour, first discovered the Dinosaur Trackways in the 1960s. He thought they were fossilised bird tracks, and showed them to local enthusiast Peter Knowles. What they were looking at was, and still is today, the world's only recorded evidence of a dinosaur stampede.

It wasn’t until scientists visited the area in 1971 that the Trackways story began to unfold. Although the scientists were looking for Cretaceous mammals, Peter showed them the dinosaur tracks as a matter of interest. The last period of the Mesozoic era, around 146 to 65 million years ago. Many dinosaurs and other organisms died out at the end of this era.

Five years later, paleontologists and volunteers began the task of removing rock to expose the Trackways layer.  In the years that followed, the Trackways began to deteriorate and palaeontologists from Queensland Museum raised concerns about the possible loss of the Trackways unless action was taken to stabilise and protect them from further damage.  A new conservation building, funded by Queensland Heritage Trails Network, was erected in 2002.

Fossilised footprints would not tell us much without scientific interpretation. Scientists used mathematics, comparisons and inspired guesswork to uncover the story of the Trackways.

Back in the lab, scientists studied each footprint print on a latex mould taken from the site. The footprints were measured and described, and (where individual tracks could be followed) pace length, stride length and pace angulation were measured.  Scientists then compared the footprints to dinosaur skeletons from all over the world with feet roughly matching the Lark Quarry tracks.  The dinosaur running speeds were worked out using equations based on the locomotion of living animals, incorporating size, weight and flexibility differences.  Once the scientists knew which dinosaurs made the tracks, how many there were and how fast they were moving, they were able to piece together the stampede story.

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In recent years there has been some doubt about the original scientific interpretation. Around 2010, some scientists looked more closely at dinosaur tracks. When various proportions of the outlines that had been published in 1984 were compared alongside other dinosaur tracks, these scientists suggested that they appeared to belong to a plant-eating ornithopod rather than a theropod. If it was a large-bodied ornithopod, maybe it was something similar to Muttaburrasaurus, which we know inhabited this part of Queensland around the time the Lark Quarry tracks were made.

Since both the large footprints and drag marks have small dinosaur tracks overprinting them, the dinosaurs that made the smaller tracks must have crossed the area much later. From research that was published in 2013 it was know that some of these smaller dinosaurs were running, some were wading and some were even swimming. It would appear that the footprints could have been made over a period of time and not all on the one day.

Whatever the real story, it's a fascinating place to visit.

12 July - Winton To Mitchell

Arno's Wall, Winton

Camp at Mitchell