Brrrrr...well if we thought the previous few night had been
cold then we were sorely mistaken, and apparently they are going to get colder
of the next few days! Around 6 am I turned our bush camping heater on, our biggest
sauce pan filled with water on the stove, and by 7 the boys were both in our
bed under the doona as we snuggled like little piggies trying to conserve heat!
It was a late breakfast due to the fact that none of us wanted to get out from
under the doona!
After driving around town a few times getting a few supplies
we headed the 15kms out to the “Australia Age of Dinosaurs” museum. Similar to what happened in Richmond a local
grazier, Peter, stumbled across a few dinosaur bones in his paddock. After some
initial help from the QLD museum Peter
decided this was a good opportunity and started to do the digs himself with the
assistance of some other locals and volunteers. In the end they managed to pull
out a remnants of three massive dinosaurs. Again when other local graziers came
to learn what a dinosaur fossil looks
like many were able to go back to their properties and bring back samples.
They were going from strength to strength and on one dig they
pulled out two that are nicknames “Banjo” and “Matilda” with Banjo being the
first of his kind found in the world. They took a big risk and set up a centre
where people could come and participate in the digs and the preparation of the
fossils turning it into a working museum that is also a tourist attraction! It
has grown significantly over the past 10 years
to the point where they now have a laboratory building and a display
building with another monster complex just starting to be constructed.
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| All of the fossils waiting to be prepared...just a few years worth of work. |
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| Volunteers doing the prepping...anybody over 12 can do it! |
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| A sheep verterbrae up against Matilda's. Its hard to see but the similarity of their shape was uncanny. |
We visited both sites and had a great time. Visiting the lab
was really cool as they showed you how they find the fossils, from beginning to
end, and then how they take the surrounding rock of them. We then went to the
display where we sat through an awesome presentation about Banjo and Matilda
that went from Jurrasic Park like animation through to the finer detail on the actual
bones that were laid out in front of us, and these weren’t models they were the
real deal!
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| Banjo's bits n pieces |
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| Matilda's left overs |
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| Part of the animation that gave us an idea of what it was like here a lazy 100 million years ago and the theory as to why they both ended up in the same pit together. |
Content with our paleontological experience we packed up and
left the dinosaur trail behind us, heading south to Longreach. We pulled into
the riverside park just north of town and settled into the serene landscape
that surrounded us...100 caravans all parked on top of each other, but hey...if
its free I’ll take it!
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| Ahhh the serenity! |
The boys mucked around while I managed to pull a copy of last
Saturdays Townsville Bulletin from the bin and immersed myself in it. I tried
to remember the last time I had read a newspaper, but could only say it was
around Perth, or something like that. As soon as the sun got close to the
horizon we all climbed in the van and I was happy to be cooking inside. Oh how
things have changed from a month ago when eating inside the van was to warm! It
is supposed to be getting down to 3 or 4 in the morning so we all rugged up and
prepared ourselves like we were heading into an arctic winter!
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