We left Charters Towers behind us and started heading west. We knew we were heading the right direction as the roads were straight, and the soil dry and dusty. We were planning to spend the next week or so touring Australia's very own Dinosaur Trail, encompassing the towns of Hughenden, Richmond and Winton. Little did we know we would be journeying back in time to different landscapes, from ancient sea beds, to rainforests and muddy shorelines, and we would be meeting some of the creatures that ruled these environments.
We had been denied our Australian Arms lunch with Mash Potato (Kangaroo and Emu) at the Prairie Hotel Parachilna as it was closed when we passed through the Flinders Ranges, so we couldn't pass the Prairie Hotel Prairie without passing in. We had a good poke around the old memorabilia in the pub, and the publican (not a backpacker!) on hearing we were off on the Dinosaur Trail, showed the boys some fossils and coprolite (dinosaur poo) from his own collection. We enjoyed our paddle pops in the 42 degree heat, and continued on.
Prairie Hotel - Prairie!
The temperature was soaring into the low 40's as we continued towards Hughenden. We decided that we all needed a swim. After a dip at the Hughenden Pool, we reckoned we could then present ourselves to "Mutt", the Muttaburrasaurus guarding the town.
'Mutt' the Muttaburrasaurus
We had booked a camp at nearby Porcupine Gorge, and made camp late in the afternoon as we attempted to avoid the heat. It was still ridiculously hot as we set up camp and cooked dinner. As the sun set some strange grunting noises started emanating from the bush. Just as we were starting to get alarmed, a couple of cute Rufous Bettongs appeared out of the grass. They looked thirsty - and gratefully lapped up a bowl of water we put out for them.
Rufous Bettongs enjoying a drink
The following morning, in an attempt to beat the heat, we were up early and set off to walk down into Porcupine Gorge. This is the largest gorge in this part of the world, and we enjoyed walking in the relative cool that a 6.30am start gets you. We passed through recent lava flows, down to ancient sandstone on our descent into the gorge. The water at the base was brackish, and only just flowing, but it was extremely peaceful to sit in the cool of the early morning by the water.
With the sun getting higher in the sky, we made our way back to camp. It was little after 9.30am when we returned, and the temperature was already over 35 degrees. We had planned a rest day, and spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing board games in the shade of our awning. It was hot, and we didn't feel as rejuvenated as perhaps we had hoped.
Porcupine Gorge
We employed the same strategy the following morning with another early start. We packed up in the cool of the early morning and made our way back towards Hughenden to get stuck into the Dinosaur Trail proper. We arrived in town early and checked out some of the various street art before the Flinders Discovery Centre opened.
Hughenden Street Art - Muttaburrasaurus made out of scrap metal
Hughenden Federation Rotunda
The Flinders Discovery Centre has a massive recreation of the skeleton of a Muttaburrasaurs found nearby. This impressive looking reptile was a herbivore - but I don't think I would have wanted to have got in its way. We wandered through the centre, which also has a good breakdown of the pastoral history of the region.
With all the sights of Hughenden visited, we jumped back in the car and continued west. You guess it, straight roads beside the railway, on black soil plains.
Richmond is much smaller than Hughenden, but has a man made lake with a water park on the foreshore. Whilst we were making lunch, the kids had a ball cooling off in the heat. After a quick bite, we were all blasting each other with water cannons. It was a perfect way to have a break.
Suitably refreshed, we next visited Richmond's Kronosaurus Korner. Whilst Hughenden was on the shore of the ancient inland sea, Richmond was around 40 metres underwater. This ancient sea bed had also yielded a huge variety of fossils from 110 million years ago - from giant carnivorous Kronosaurus, to ancient fish and shells.
This gallery housed an amazing collection of ancient marine creatures. I liked the ancient Ichtyosaur, kind of like a giant dolphin with an upright tail. The Plesiosaur recreations were also fascinating, and we really enjoyed walking through the galleries here. The Little Fisherman was fascinated by the size of some of the ancient fish. If only he could have thrown in a line to this ancient sea! It must have been teeming with life.
Possessed with an urge to find our own fossils, we headed to the public fossil finding area nearby. It was startlingly hot, but we persisted and found a whole heap of shells and various mashes of fish bones. Nothing new to science today, but we had a great time until the heat finally forced us to retreat to Rocky's air conditioning.
We had planned on spending a couple of nights at Richmond, but a chance discovery at Hughenden that morning had altered our travel plans significantly. Whilst it was now getting on in the day, we had some miles to cover by Thursday night. It was still ferociously hot, so we pointed the bonnet south and starting heading towards Winton. It was much as before - but this time the road was unsealed.
Our camp for the evening was in Bladensburg National Park, just out of Winton. We camped by the dry Bough's Waterhole, and enjoyed the brief shade before the sun set. It had been a long 477km covered from Porcupine Gorge, but we were glad to be here.
Following our strategy of early morning pack ups, we found ourselves wandering through the old Bladensburg Homestead shortly after 7am. This old sheep property looked in much better condition than the surrounding properties, but in chatting with the rangers, we learnt that the region is very much in drought. The homestead waterhole has only been dry three times in the past 60 years. This year and last year were two out of the three occasions. It put the incredibly dry landscape into a bit of perspective - and reminded us that we are now in an area that doesn't always receive summer rain.
We bade farewell the the Rangers, and headed south to Larks Quarry. This significant site was largely ignored and its significance not realised for many years. In 2002 action was finally taken to seriously preserve what proved to be an incredible snapshot into perhaps a minute or two's activity some 95 million years ago.
In this building lies protected a layer of mudstone that records some 3300 dinosaur footprints. This is the scene of what appears to be pandemonium when a large carnivorous dinosaur startled some hundred and fifity sauropods around the size of chickens. What ensued was a stampede, a mass of confused scattering and somehow their footprints have been preserved.
Of course no one was here to witness the stampede, and a little cartoon provided an alternative explanation that I found rather cute.
The large dinosaur that caused the panic has not yet been confirmed - but there is new evidence to suggest that nearby, a completely new to science species may have been responsible. Nicknamed Banjo, we met him at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum, also near Winton.
Our final stop on the Dinosaur Trail was the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum, Our guides Emily and Gracie took us through the two parts - the display area where the actual bones are on display, and the lab where they are prepared for analysis and display. Our first look was at the bones of Banjo, and Matilda, two animals that roamed this area around 100 million years ago, Winton is higher than Richmond and Hughenden, and around this time was a lush rainforest with conifers and ferns abundant. This is the only place where you can see these bones - and these are the actual bones, not casts, of two species that have not been found anywhere else. In a twist, the bones of Matilda and Banjo were found together... the hunter and the hunted? To find out the story behind the two, you just have to go and see what they're up to. In fact, the discoveries are changing the way we think these dinosaurs moved and how they looked almost daily.
The Age of Dinosaurs Museum is a real hands on museum, and encourages volunteers to help them with both their digs and the preservation work. They conduct a three week dig each winter, and this usually yields enough material to last five years in the lab. The area surrounding Winton is literally covered in dinosaur bones.
A real bone from the giant sauropod Matilda
We met some of the volunteers in the lab. To work here, you have to be aged 12 or over, and have completed a two week course - also run by the museum. It was fascinating to see 100 million year old bones being extracted from their rocky tomb. The passion, drive and dedication of these people make this the most productive lab of its kind in the world in terms of output.
Phew - our Dinosaurs Trail had been a real whirlwind tour. Each of the sites on the trail is unique, and we felt that the order we visited them all built on the previous experiences. It was an amazing and humbling couple of days.
It would have been nice to slow down and spend more time of an evening revisiting our experiences, however the hot weather made such a proposition uncomfortable. Instead we used our free time to relocate to an attraction I had been keen to see ever since I had heard of it. Its last run for the season was on Friday 31st of October - so it was with a sense of relief we made it to its location the night before and treated ourselves to a pizza in the local air conditioned restaurant. It was late, we had covered another 445km on our last day on the trail, but the next day made it all worthwhile.
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