Winton

 22 - 24 June 2025

We had arranged to meet my sister and her partner in Winton so set off after restocking and fuelling up again. The drive from Hughenden was uneventful, and we arrived just on lunch time so went and had a picnic in the park before checking in to the caravan park.

We went for a walk in town and then later in the afternoon set off to do some birding at the sewerage treatment works. Unfortunately, we couldn't get close enough to see the water so we continued on and drove down to Pelican Waterhole. After a lot of recent rain there was a fair bit of water, and lots of birds around so Mick was happy.

Late afternoon at Pelican Waterhole

One of the main attractions in the area is Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, which we had visited 10 years ago. There has been some further development so I was keen to go again. We had booked our visit to also include a trip to Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways in a couple of days time. Bronwyn and John had also booked to visit both places.

We were all booked to start our tour at 9:45am with the March of the Titanosaurs, followed by time at Dinosaur Canyon. This exhibit has been added since our last visit and, as with the others, was fantastic. The dinosaur tracks have been painstakingly moved from their original location in a nearby creek bed. It's fascinating to discover how they were found, and what the tracks tell paleontologists. Dinosaur Canyon contains many models of dinosaurs with information about the habitat in which they would have lived. We could have spent a lot more time exploring this part of the complex.

One of many life-sized replicas in Dinosaur Canyon

Our next tour was to the fossil preparation room - probably my favourite. This is where volunteers process the fossils found in the local area. There are so many fossils waiting on shelves to be revealed, our guide said that it would take ten years to get through them all, without bringing in any new ones. 

The final tour was the collection room where the story of how Age of Dinosaurs came about. Graziers David and Judy Elliott had the foresight to contact the Australian Museum when they found what they thought might be dinosaur fossils on their property. Further exploration revealed some unique finds. From humble beginnings the Age of Dinosaurs was born, and continues to grow. In my opinion this is one of the best tourist attractions in Australia, which continues to grow and support research of global significance. 

On Monday night we went for dinner at Tattersall's Hotel for a celebration dinner with Bronwyn and John, and John's sister. In the morning we would head to Opalton and perhaps meet up with them again but nothing was definite.