Charters Towers to Winton

Inland Queensland

Monday 15^th to Wednesday 17^th September

 

Winton

The journey to Winton signalled the beginning of the Outback Way and our road home!

 

The information boards along the Outback Way

Dry as a bone!

The reviews for Long Water Hole all said that the place was very dry, but I don’t think us Poms could actually imagine what that would really look like. The camp area looked like a dry riverbed with a cracked mud base with large splits between each mud plate. Cows wandered in their aimless way around the area and emus darted between the campers. There was a waterhole, (although not so long as the name suggested) and that attracted lots of little birds too.



That emu stole our bread!

Life and death in the drought

 

Choose your spot Wisely!



When we went looking for a place to set up the camper we saw the unappetising consequences of no toilets! Bits of toilet paper stuck out like flags of surrender from every crevice behind every bush! We camped as far away as possible from the white flags but you had to be very careful where you stepped in the dark!! There were free toilets and hot showers in the BP garage in Winton and these were a bit of a life saver!

 

Cows came very close to camp

Not the nicest surface to camp on!

Winton – the best outback town we’ve seen!

We spent a day exploring Winton; the town is working very hard to capitalise on it’s heritage and natural discoveries and is well set up for visitors. Our highlights were the Australian Dinosaur Centre, the Waltzing Matilda Centre and Arno’s Wall!

Good food in a country tavern



Australian Age of Dinosaur Museum

We all approached this with huge reservations after the extremely dull day at Riversleigh (see Lawn Hill post), but this place totally blew us away! The centre is out of town and you get a very personal tour of the behind-the-scenes reconstruction of real dino bones. This is an agonisingly slow and painstaking process, run by a devoted team of researchers and volunteers. I was amazed to find out that there are more dino bones than people to deal with them in the Winton area!! Two new species of Aussie dinos have been discovered in Winton at the centre and they are set to become a dino mecca for enthusiasts!

                                   

Dino bones encased in plaster - it will take the team 10 year to sort these & they only dig for 3 weeks a year!

Real dino bones you can touch!

                                                        

 Arnos Wall

 

Arno’s Wall was a crazy collection of human detritus gathered over many years and transformed into art!!