Winton, our overnight stop last night, has been named the
Dinosaur Capital of Australia. There is a giant mesa a few km out of town called
the Jump-Up where they have created a Dinosaur museum. Back in 1996 the Elliot
family found what looked like and turned out to be a dinosaur bone while
mustering their sheep. They called in the experts and excavation started. They
have now created the Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History where people
can view the lab where they are cleaning bones and storing them as well as a
collection room which houses dinosaur fossils for viewing. They also offer
people the opportunity to camp there and help with the cleaning on a volunteer
basis once completing a crash fossil tech course. It was very interesting
watching the volunteer staff working away cleaning the bones, a very laborious
task, being careful not to damage the bone while removing the rock around them.
As they discover bones they name them (Mary after one of the doctors, Banjo
after the author of Waltzing Matilda, etc.) and label them with the finder,
date and if possible bone they have found. They are then treated and set in
plaster to await the cleaning process. Some of the samples waiting are dated
from as far back as 2006. Our lab guide, Kim told us she is a seventh generation
Elliot, so is related to the founders.
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| Guide and Bone Storage Area |
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| Fossil Techs at Work |
After spending the morning with the dinosaurs we made our
way to Longreach. We had thought we had been seeing lots of road kill the past
few days but nothing to compare with today. We decided to count and in a THREE
minute period had counted 157, YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT, 157 kangaroo carcasses
either on the road or on the side of the road. Doing a bit of quick math we
guesstimated there could be as many as 6,000 dead on this stretch of road (177
km). They can be a real road hazard as often you can barely get by them with
traffic coming in the other direction. It is like dodging reverse potholes. We
did hear one theory for the large numbers that it has rained recently which has
made the grass by the road greener thus attracting them to feed. We did see a
few live ones farther off the road. If you drive at night here you WILL hit a
kangaroo.
It seems that the Outback campgrounds like to offer
entertainment and that was the case again today. We went to listen to a country
balladeer named Graham Rodger sing songs he had written. Several people there
seemed to have heard of him but not us. He was a very good guitarist. They even
have a special forum for bush poetry.
The bird watching here in the campground has been very good.
While we were sitting outside a Brolga crane came sauntering over right behind
Doug’s chair – a bit of a surprise. They are so used to people. Again today
there are huge flocks of galahs, numbering several hundred we are sure. You
don’t see much of them except first thing in the morning and again as evening
approaches.
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| Apostle Bird |
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| Brolgna |
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