Waltzing in Winton

 95 million years ago!!!

We arrived in Winton in time for a morning tea visit to the local bakery and I look though some of the Boulder Opal stores. We then headed to the Banjo Paterson ‘Waltzing Matilda’ Centre. This iconic Australian song was first performed in public by Banjo Paterson in 1895 at the North Gregory Hotel in the centre of town. The highlight of the visit for us was playing 12 different versions of the song on an old-style record player. At least we stopped at 12 as there have evidently been over 500 different recordings!

On Sunday we drove 22kms to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs attraction. This was awesome! A highlight was seeing the March of the Titanosaurs. This was only discovered in 1999 as a severe flood unearthed the rock bed in a local farmers creek. They called in the experts and low and behold, several dinosaur prints were identified deep in the mud (which had turned to stone). The creek bed was then painstakingly removed, piece by piece, and re assembled, under cover in controlled temperatures, at the Age of Dinosaur attraction. The fossilised footprints are over 95 million years old! We also toured the fossil collection centre, where the bones of Banjo, Matilda, Anne and Alex are on display – amazing, and the Fossil Preparation Laboratory where volunteers were busy cleaning bones found from recent area digs. This is a must-see experience.

We ended another great day catching up with Penny and Brian at the Tattersalls Hotel for dinner and drinks.

The white bones in the photos are from a cow - so good comparison to the size of the dinosaur bones found.

The left photo is of a dinosaur sacrum, located at the base of the spine connected to the pelvis. The photo on the right shows pieces of spine.

Beautiful Brolga's

 

After settling into the Muddy Duck Caravan Park just outside of Longreach, we took a walk along the banks of the very muddy (and quite full) Thompson River and were greeted by two beautiful Brolga’s.

The Brolga is Australia’s largest waterbird, standing around 1 metre tall with a wing-span up to 2.4 metres. They can be found in open wetlands and mangrove creeks and are best known for their ritualised mating dance. Brolga’s mate for life and the two we followed for at least 30 minutes seemed very content with each other’s company - kindly stretching out their wings for me to snap a photo.

Barcaldine to Longreach

We reached Barcaldine eager to see the much-anticipated Tree of Knowledge. We were both familiar and had seen the site of the Eureka Stockade in the Goldfields of Ballarat, but had little knowledge about the Shearer’s Strike in Barcaldine in 1891. The strike for justice and unity in defiance lead to the development of the labour union movement and the formation of the Australian Labour Party.  

The Tree of Knowledge was a 200-year-old Eucalyptus Ghost Gum that bore witness to the struggle between shearer’s and pastoralists’ over wages and working conditions. The tree was poisoned and killed in 2006 so the trunk of the tree has now been preserved and an 18 metre-high timber monument, comprising hanging timber batons representing shearers blades, has been erected to mark the heritage site. It was quite impressive.

After sampling a pie from the local bakery, we were back in the Landcruiser and heading for Longreach. Now well and truly into Queensland outback, we journeyed the long, straight road, with the first signs of red dirt alongside, passing many a road train laden with cattle. These road trains are up to 53 metres in length and I hold my breath as we pass them! 

We both enjoyed the trivia sign postings beside the road, aimed at reducing fatigue and hence accidents.

We arrived in Longreach mid afternoon and checked into the Muddy Duck Caravan Park. Home for the next three nights. The park is new and is located just outside of the town and along the banks of the very muddy Thompson River. Low and behold we pulled in next to our last neighbours in Carnarvon Gorge, Brian and Penny from Canberra – a very pleasant surprise.

Day one in Longreach and we headed for the infamous Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame (while the Landcruiser went in for a general service and check) . This tourist attraction is a fabulous tribute to stockman, our pastoral heritage and the Aussie outback. The attraction involved an intro movie, a live show with stockman, horses, sheep and kelpie dogs and a great interactive museum with accompanying iPod and interactive App which relayed stories of the past related to the exhibits. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Day two we ventured to the Qantas Founders Museum. Considering Bazza, my Dad, had a career with Qantas spanning 47 years, this was a must see. The museum is in the original Qantas Longreach hanger and comprises a Boeing 747 (City of Bunbury), a Boeing 707 and a Douglas DC3. In fact the 747 is the first thing you see as you enter Longreach, proudly greeting you from the Landsborough (Hudson Fysh) Hwy.

I enjoyed re visiting all the QANTAS flight attendant uniforms that I remember over the decades, seeing the replica of the First Class retro 70's lounge (being lucky enough to have travelled First-Class numerous times – thanks Bazza) and standing alongside a 747 engine – which my brother and I were photographed sitting inside in 1971, prior to the first QANTAS 747 Jumbo Jet (City of Canberra) leaving Boeing in Seattle bound for Sydney.

We finished another great day with a lovely dinner in town with Brian and Penny.

Fossicking in Sapphire

 Fossicking in Sapphire

We said goodbye to Carnarvon Gorge and headed for Sapphire via Emerald and Rolleston.

At Emerald we found it was the home town of another BIG - the Big Easel! So a photo was captured for Maddie Sip. Emerald is a large rural town within an agricultural area producing wheat, chickpeas, sorghum, cotton and sunflowers, hence the 25m easel holding a replica of Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' still life painting. Van Gogh painted the Sunflower series to represent gratitude. We are feeling very grateful indeed to be able to tour our beautiful country at present.

After a coffee stop in Emerald and a great chat with the local, eccentric café owner, we arrived in Sapphire in time for an afternoon Underground Mine Tour. We marveled at the beauty of the many sapphires on display and learnt that sapphires are the second hardest gem stone, after diamonds, and come in an array of colours including blues, greens and yellows (locally mined) and very rare pinks, purples and colourless (mostly now only found in Sri Lanka and Myanmar).

The  following morning, being Anzac Day, we attended the local march and service at the Sapphire RSL. An intimate gathering attended by 10 local servicemen, the local Anakie Primary School students and staff, an ambulance officer, one policeman, all the locals and a few tourists - we loved it!

After lunch and a few drinks at the Rubyvale Hotel, we headed to Armfest Fossicking to try our luck. It was such fun and we had a great afternoon, joined by a travelling French family and Carol the owner. We walked away with a handful of sapphire and zircon chips (unfortunately we will have to return to work upon our return), but we did witness some of the mine's amazing finds - including a 1.8 carat natural diamond in the rough and  a massive 4.2 carat blue sapphire - just beautiful sparking in the sun. 

CARNARVON GORGEous - QLD Central Highlands

 How lucky are we to be back at this beautiful place within 3 years!

Carnarvon Gorge is hidden in the rugged ranges of Queensland’s Central Highlands and features amazing walks between towering sandstone cliffs. We had five nights camping at Takarakka Campground which is a beautiful shady campsite alongside a lovely creek, home to Platypus, Echidna's and Kangaroo's.

Day One we headed off early for the long walk to Big Bend, via Boowinda Gorge, Cathedral Cave, Ward’s Canyon and the Art Gallery – 25kms return. We sat and admired Aboriginal Art dating back 3,500 years, hiked up the Boowinda Gorge, a dried creek bed full of challenging river stones, until the towering rock walls began to close in on us and sat in the shade of the waterhole at Big Bend for lunch.

Day Two we headed back into the National Park to view Moss Garden, the Amphitheatre and another visit to Ward’s Canyon – 18kms return. We were blessed to have all of these special sites to ourselves for a lot of the time, so we could soak up the serenity and listen to the sounds of tweeting birds and running streams. Ward’s Canyon is a cool oasis and home to the world’s largest King fern’s – magnificent with the sun shining on the brilliant green fronds. Magic indeed.

Day Three was declared a rest day by Sippy. We had a good cook-up breakfast of poached eggs, tomato, oregano chutney and toasted rye sour dough and then did the housework. A few loads of washing, a wipe down of the ensuite and we were done. Love this!!! As it was a beautiful blue-sky day and a warm 28 degrees we headed for the Rock Pool, a lovely waterhole just inside the National Park. Although a little cool to take the initial plunge, once in we were rewarded with a beautiful refreshing swim in stunning surroundings.

That evening we sat around the communal campfire and met some very interesting people. Sippy informed me we would meet some characters – and alas he wasn’t wrong. One guy in particular had had a very interesting life having been a snake catcher, a song writer, recorder and performer, an opal miner and a heavy machine operator who had lived in 4 Australian States … my goodness he could talk!

Day Four we headed off to climb Boolimba Bluff – a 2.2km vertical climb which afforded amazing views of the gorge and cliffs faces. As we ventured up early in the morning, we were blessed to have the sun shining fully on the cliff faces – spectacular and well worth the climb (and the many steep steps and ladders). We then hiked Mickey Creek Gorge and Warrumbah Gorge, again lucky enough to have the gorges to ourselves. We soaked up the grandeur, along with the peace and quiet of nature. Total walk 15kms.

We finished the day with another swim at the Rock Pool, along with a few turtles. Sausages with fried tomatoes and mushrooms, washed down with a Brokenwood Rosato completed a great day.