We left you last episode as we arrived in the township of Winton. We are all set up at the free camp out of town called the “Long Waterhole” a great spot with plenty of room and a waterfont site, although it was busy for the 3 nights although we felt we had the place to ourselves! Our 1st night we enjoy sitting around the campfire and just relaxing around camp. The following day we head out back towards Longreach about 25kms to visit The Australian Age of Dinosaurs.
The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History is home to the world’s largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils. It's a working museum with a Fossil Preparation Laboratory and it’s located on 1,800 hectares with amazing scenery.
The Australian Age of the Dinosaurs is situated on top of a Mesa (a flat topped elevation or hill) called the Jump Up, the view of outback Queensland from here is absolutely stunning.
At the museum you’ll see and hear about their exciting finds of unique dinosaurs that lived nearly a 100 million years ago, including gigantic sauropods and “Banjo”, Australia’s greatest carnivorous dinosaur a Theropod.
The tour was split into 3 sections.
-The Lab, where you learn when and where the 1st Dinosaur was found and how bones and fossils are excavated and you can see a Volunteer at work uncovering a really exciting peice of excavation of what very well may be the most complete dinosaur fossil in Australia.
-The Collection Room, which is host to two Dinosaur Matilda (Diamantinasaurus) and Banjo (Theropod), very fitting names for where they were found together with a video of a possible explanation as to how they looked and moved. We then head to the last part of the tour.
-The Dinosaur Canyon, where the large lifesize statues are on display as well as a really impressive collection of footprints from a few days worth of activity from some 95 million years ago. After seeing the amazing fossilised footprints you can then take a walk amongst the statues and enjoy the incredible views of Outback Queensland. After checking the Visitor Centre out with all their Souvenirs we made our way back to camp ready for an Early night so we could head out to Lark Quarry the following day.
The following morning we have breakfast make lunch and head about 110kms southwest of Winton to Lark Quarry Conservation Park. The journey to Lark Quarry Conservation park is a across ancient mesas of jump-up country to the Trackways site. The Lark Quarry is on a gravel road but is generally in good condition and the scenery is fantastic.
It's exciting to think that we are about to see about 4000 footprints of Dinosaurs believed to be a Stampede caused by a Theropod looking for a meal about 95 million years ago. Our tour guide is Peter and he firstly introduces us to how the fossilised footprints were found, excavated, its Conservation, how the prints were preserved and how the Stampede could have occurred. We then are taken into a large under cover area where we finally see the fossilised footprints.
After the tour we take a walk around part of a landscape formed over millions of years, as the ancient rocks known as the Winton Formation have been eroded into a striking landscape of jump-up country with flat-topped hills (mesas) and gullies.
We leave this episode as we head back to camp for our last night at "Long Waterhole". Next time I get surprised with balloons a special present from Lucas, Max and Maddison for my Birthday and we part ways for a few days. Peter and I head West to find out about the Min Min Lights and Benn, Dannielle and the kids head North to Hughenden and Richmond to finish the Dinosaur Trail. Until then thanks for Watching.
Video and Music made with Kinemaster and Footage was taken with a Samsung S21 Ultra and GoPro Hero 9.
21 окт 2024
