Home of Waltzing Matilda

 Saturday 17th July

We drove to Winton after the show at the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and once again reflected on the toughness of those generations of men and women who came before us. People like Nat Buchanan who made several successful trips droving cattle from Qld and NSW all the way to the NT’s Top End and Kimberley in the west. The animals in Lachie’s show were amazingly well trained and cared for. I have never before seen a horse willingly lie down on its back with all four hooves in the air and we enjoyed the lyrics of his original songs. Sadly though, the 20 odd sheep in his flock is more than we have seen in any flock for weeks. 

Approaching Winton we could see the Forsythe Range way off to the left. Can you spot them? 

Up until then the land is flat in all directions for as far as the eye can see and appears featureless yet you know you are crossing Mitchell grass plains, spinifex country and channel country just waiting for the wet season. Once again there was barely any stock to be seen. We found camp sites together at the Long Hole (not the long drop) just on the edge of town. Each year Winton holds a festival and this is the site of the Crayfish Derby. We weren't the only ones camped by the billabong, but it wasn't too crowded. A beautiful, peaceful evening with the ambience of a campfire.

Sunday 18th July

Sunrise was just as good in the stillness. And then I dived back under the doona!

We visited to the Age of Dinosaurs Museum, set on a flat-topped mesa about 20 kms out of town. The steep drive up the jump-up provided stunning, uninterrupted views across to the horizon. 

It is home to the largest collection of Aust. dinosaur fossils. We both had our doubts about our levels of interest in the topic since both of us have shared in our own boys interest and then taught it numerous times to school children but we’d have to say this was a very interesting and well-coordinated tour. We started with a guided tour at the fossil preparation laboratory where the process of extracting and moving the fossils was explained and saw palaeontologists and volunteers working diligently on cleaning up and preserving the individual pieces. 

Next we saw the collection room where examples of the fossils that are unique to Australia were on display.

Finally we were taken to the March of the Titanosaurus exhibit where we could view a 54m set of footprints that were found in a dry creek bed after the 2001 floods and moved to this site for display. 

We finished the visit with a walk through Dinosaur canyon, where life-sized models are on display. It is amazing how those names like Saropods and Titanosaurus just start to roll off the tongue again. 

Returning to Winton we had lunch at the Waltzing Matilda Centre Café, the first museum to be dedicated to a song.  

A walk up and down the main street revealed a few establishments of interest including boulder opal cutting (very different to the Coober Pedy opal we’ve seen previously), and the fossicking bug it twitchy again. 

The Royal Open Air Theatre, built in 1918 and just one of two open-air theatres still operating in Australia.

Then there's The North Gregory Hotel with it's fine art decor of the 1950's. I loved the sandblasted glass panel doors designed by Daphne Mayo. This is believed to be the location where Waltzing Matilda was first performed publicly.

We finished our town tour with a visit to the Musical Fence, the wires of which you can strum or pluck to make a tune. Beside it are an assortment of other percussion ‘instruments’ to experiment with. 

We spent a lovely last evening together with the Munros by the Long Waterhole with an early birthday dinner for Eric provided by them. It was a lovely way to end that part of the trip.