Day 70 – 73 1st – 4th June Winton

As hoped we drove out of the rain towards Winton. It was a short drive of about 170 kms. We drove into town to check out the sights and around to the North Gregory Hotel where they offer free camping behind the pub, with minimal facilities for those wishing to save a bit of money. (us!!!!!) The facilities were extremely minimal and we didn’t want to save that much money, so we opted for one of the local Caravan Parks the Matilda Country Caravan Park.
It turns out that this was one of the best decisions that we’ve made as the Caravan Par was a beauty. Not much to look at from the outside, but it had a great feel about it, with new owners fresh from the city and a resident bush poet Milton Taylor, who gave renditions around the camp fire, every night through the “winter season” for travellers. Sounds corny but he was really very good and the girls and myself very much enjoyed listening to him. He also liked a little bit of audience participation and he found some willing participants amongst the Getson girls, which he also appreciated.
Winton gets virtually all its water from The Great Artesian Basin which is drawn from a depth of 800 – 1000m and rises to the surface at a tep of about 80 deg. Celsius. It also has a rotten egg smell although this dissipates with time as you let it “breathe”.
Although only a small town, Winton is another historical hub for Outback Qld, being the town where “Banjo” Paterson first had Waltzing Matilda performed and where the big shearers strike of 1895 happened and resulted in the formation of the Australian Labour Party. It was also the town where the first meeting to form Qantas, was held, and it original headquarters were, before it was shifted to Longreach. The town has a historical centre:- “The Waltzing Matilda Centre” devoted to these 3 major historical episodes.
We also visited Lark Quarry, which is 110 km form Winton and is the site of the worlds only recorded Dinosaur stampede, which occurred a mere 95 million years ago. This was also a fascinating place and quite mind numbing when you realise that you are standing over a piece of ground, looking at sets of dinosaur footprints that were laid down so long ago and here you are standing upon the same ground in exactly the same place but separated by 95 million years!!
Daisy and Jassy of course just wanted to find Dorothy so they could give her another cuddle.
After 3 nights at Winton we decided to push on to Boulia. So we packed up and bade our farewells to the owners and to Milton the poet, with whom we had also struck up a friendship. We called into the bakery, located behind a house and which sells bread only (no rolls, cakes, muffins, etc) for some lunch and were away.