Mt Isa, Hughenden, Winton
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| Go to home page | Mt Isa, Hughenden, Winton |
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| Mt Isa smelters stack can be seen from all over town. | The mine complex dominates the town skyline. | An old open cut mine pit. | Mt Isa is also a support centre for Riversleigh Fossil dig sites. |
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| They have a visitor centre where lots of fossils are being collected. | This sign post at the town lookout shows distances from major world cities. | Cloncurry airport still has the original hangar used by QANTAS planes. | Richmond dinosaur centre is full of complete skeletons and other remains. |
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| They have fossils of bones still in the rock. | A turtle shell fossil. | A prehistoric fish fossil. | There are lots of different fossils in this rock. |
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| Hughenden has a model Muttaburrasaurus in the main street. | There is a "Mutta" skeleton in the dinosaur centre. | A common style of house in this region - known as the "Queenslander". | Driving behind a road train, we noticed one of the passengers looking at us. |
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| Winton is known as "Matilda Country" and has a whole visitor centre about "Waltzing Matilda" and the swagman. | A.B Paterson visited here at the time he wrote "Waltzing Matilda". | A handwritten page of the words to the poem / song. | On the road to Combo waterhole, near Kynuna, to see where the swagman jumped into the billabong. |
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| Combo Waterhole is said to be the place where the jolly swagman camped by a billabong. | Winton is also famous for being the place where QANTAS started business. | A replica of a dinosaur trackway. The real one is at Lark's Quarry - over 100km from Winton. | The QANTAS hangar / museum at Longreach. |
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| A truck stop at Longreach where road trains park. These can have 4 trailers making them about 53 metres long. | The Stockmans Hall of Fame - Longreach. | The "Black Stump" is found behind the high school in Blackall. | The Blackall sale yards were full. The sale was in two days. |
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| A sign in the main street of Tambo. | The teddy factory there has hand made bears and other creatures. | They are made by people of the town and nearby farms and sold in the shop. | A real cattle drive - on horseback. |
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| This windmill used to pump water for the whole town of Boulia. | A shady lunch in the main street of Boulia | Creek near Winton QLD | A nearby waterhole |
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| The Winton dinosaur fossil display has a great collection. | It is housed in an old store in the main street. | Corfield and Fitzmaurice store is now full of bones and some replica pieces. | Pieces of our ancient past are on display. |
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| Fossils of many types of 'once-living' things. | A display of the types and sizes of dinosaurs which once roamed the area. | The best was yet to come at the Elliot property, with pieces of bone from the dig site being reassembled. | Gail actually got to hold a piece of an ancient creature. |
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| The diggers get skilled at spotting even the small pieces | Fossils of leaves and plants abound in the stones. | Anne had to try her luck ! | So did Victoria - a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. |
The following images were kindly provided by, and used with permission of "Australian Age of Dinosaurs". www.australianageofdinosaurs.com/
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| When a dig is on, there are lots of people out here. | Scouring the surface.... | .. with any equipment possible ! | Sometimes you get lucky. |
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| Or very lucky !! (a rib bone) | Or 'really' lucky ! | Each find is recorded, and packed in plaster. | Lots of plaster !! |
( Many thanks David & Judy ! )
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| Finally, we made it back to Lark Quarry (see panorama below) | The trackway is a moment from millions of years ago, frozen in time and stone for all to see. | The large theropod sent the smaller dinosaurs scattering in all directions as it approached. | A sunset BBQ at the motel. |
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| Onward to Hughenden and Porcupine Gorge (see panorama below) | Down in the valley of the gorge it was dry and hot. | But I got some great shots of Pyramid Rock | We cooled off for a few days on the coast at Townsville. |
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| The girls swam, and swam, and swam .... | ... and played at the water park - they wanted to bring this thing home !! | A drive to the top of Castle Hill for a look over Townsville. (see panorama below) | A walk through the Reef museum and Aqua-centre is a must. |
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| Cleaning the turtle shell ! | Brilliant colours of the reef and its inhabitants. | A beautiful display of the colours of life under the sea. | Hundreds of kilometres south, is Carnarvon Gorge |
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| A relaxing 2 hour walk through the valley floor was just what we needed. | The walk was worth it, following the creek all the way. | ||
| These panoramas require a viewer download. Click on the download link when prompted, and Save it. Then run the file to install the viewer. | |||
| Country around Lark Quarry | Porcupine Gorge, near Hughenden, from viewing platform | Porcupine Gorge 360 deg. view from the base of the gorge. | The view from Castle Hill in Townsville. |
| Lark Quarry area | Porcupine Gorge #1 | Porcupine Gorge #2 | Townsville |
