Winton - Lark Quarry and the Town

We came to northern Queensland at this time of year as we expected warmer weather than at home.  We didn't expect to wake up to freezing cold winds.  That is what we experienced on our second morning in Winton.  Hence, we didn't take our woolly coats and beanies out with us and we really could have done with them.  Having said that, they were forecasting snow at home, so we were still warmer where we were.

We had an early start to the day as we wanted to visit Larks Quarry, where there are the footprints of a 95 million year old dinosaur stampede.  The site is 115 kms south of Winton, so just a bit of a drive.

We have seen so many hawks and kites in Queensland, they are the most common bird that we have seen, but we have hardly seen any wedge tailed eagles.  This one was on a carcass on the road and as we came along relocated to a nearby tree and posed nicely for us.

Just as we came to the end of the bitumen we could see a cloud of dust, so we stayed where we were until two road trains drove past.  Fortunately, the wind was blowing the dust away from us. 

Once again we reach jump ups and this time we saw hard spinafex, which is greyer in colour than the soft spinafex.

We are then greeted by this huge building which seems to grow out of the side of the hill.

Once inside, we sit through an informative video explaining the fossils, before entering the actual fossil site, which makes the design of the building make sense.

The story goes that in about 1960 a stockman was scratching around in these hills prospecting for boulder opal, when he came across a rock with what looked like chicken footprints in it.  He showed a mate, who thought they were pretty interesting, so they went out and found some more for his mate, who thought they may be from dinosaurs, not chickens.  They then took them into Winton and showed the local historian, who agreed.  The specimens were duly sent to the Brisbane Museum who confirmed their find........and nothing more ever happened.........until the mid 1970s, when the Brisbane Museum had a team in the area looking for megafauna fossils.  They were speaking with the historian, who told them about the chicken footprints and took them out to the area.  They looked around and found some more.  A team were arranged to excavate the area, using mainly volunteers and army cadets.  It took about 18 months to excavate what you can see here.

So, what are we looking at, and how did it happen?

Apparently, about 95 million years ago some chicken sized dinosaurs and some emu sized dinosaurs were going about their business on a mud flat peninsula - water on three sides, forest to the rear.  The mud flat had been recently flooded and the ground was about the consistency of plasticine.  

A large  predatory therasaur came along and the small dinosaurs stampeded back towards the safety of the forest.

They can tell that the small creatures were running as there is no heal impression, unlike the large therasour.

The reason that the footprints have been preserved is that they think a second flood happened very soon after, this time coming from a river to the left of the peninsula, covering the area with sand that had an iron oxide component.  That iron oxide formed a very thin layer over the mud, which preserved the footprints.  Over the millennia a layer of sandstone has built up over them. 

After the initial excavation they built a simple tin roof shelter over the fossils, but the harsh extremes of weather in this area was causing damage, so this climate controlled building was installed in 2002.  There are more footprints still under the sandstone, but they ran out of funding and they feel that they are safe where they are and what's a few more years when they have been there for 95 million years.

Once we returned to town we investigated the other thing it is famous for - "Waltzing Matilda".  The original Waltzing Matilda Centre was burned down a few years ago, and last year the replacement was opened.  It is rather a modern building.

With an interesting light feature in the centre.

Out the back was a more traditional museum, where two things intrigued me.  The first was this very basic merry-go-round.  It was build 60 years ago by a farmer, all from found objects.  He designed it at his kitchen table and when he built it had to make no changes from his initial idea.  It was built for a fund raising event, but then continued as a kids toy at his home until it was donated to the museum.  A great example of bush ingenuity.

The other was this frame.  It is a bed frame, laced with green hide.  They were the main form of bed construction for stockmen.  The hide is from a freshly killed bullock, pegged out and then a strip of about 1/2 inch wide is cut in a circular fashion, commencing at the centre.  It may take a full hide to make enough.  This strip is then soaked in water until it is pliable, then threaded through the holes on the frame.  It is then left for a day or so to dry.  They work best in the dry country, as the hide may stretch as they absorb moisture.

Our next stop was Willie Mah's market garden.  Willie Mah senior came from China and ended up in Winton in the 1920s where he started his market garden and provided much wanted fresh produce to the locals.  He had several raised beds and used a series of ponds throughout the garden for watering.  These ponds were about a metre deep and had timber steps at each end, so he could walk through, filling his watering cans, carried on a yoke, as he went.  That way he watered his garden several times a day during the hot weather.  From the 1950s his son continued on this tradition. The produce was sold from this little shed shop and also delivered to customers. They were well liked members of the community.  The flood in 2000 caused Willie Mah junior to close his enterprise and he died in 2007. He was the last of the Chinese market gardeners in Queensland.  There is a group "Friends of Willie Mah" who have preserved this site.

Another thing that I wanted to see was "Arno's Wall".  Arno was an opal miner and built this wall around his home,  from rocks and junk from the rubbish tip.  It includes everything, including the kitchen sink.  There were several sewing machines, vacuums, the front of an Aga stove, microwaves, TVs, a VCR, typewriters, you name it.

There were a few motorbikes, a VW engine, a cement mixer, book press, stationary engines, tin hats, and the list goes on.

Part of the reason I was interested was that I worked with his daughter-in-law when the wall was first officially opened.

There aren't very many shops in the main street of Winton.  This historic building houses a museum and craft shop.  There is still the old wire mechanism for sending money to the office, but it is not in use.

There is an open air cinema behind this facade, but it is only open on Wednesdays, so we didn't get to see it.

The Post Office is typical Queensland country town.  Don't you love the garbage bin.  They do like their dinosaurs.

Surprisingly, there wasn't even a real supermarket in town.  There was just a small convenience store and another fruit shop.  I had to chuckle at the name, as the chain of supermarkets on the Isle of Man is Shop Rite.  I don't think they have expanded their network to outback Queensland.

Finally, the fourth version of the North Gregory Hotel, all previous ones having burnt down at some stage or another.  This one was built in the 1950s.  This is where Waltzing Matilda was first performed.  We camped out the back of the pub, which was very convenient to everything.

In the evening they had a country music entertainer in the large beer garden.

For a small town, there was certainly lots to see and do.  We didn't even get to visit the transport museum.  Maybe another time, but we had to get on our way, or we would seriously run out of time on this trip.