Mount Isa is an astonishing place. It is deep in the arid outback. Despite the signs warning that you are close, there are no other indications until you see the mine stacks. As you come over a ridge you see the town, but it is dwarfed by the mine of the far side of the Leichhardt River.
Leichhardt river with a view to the mine
The Leichhardt River itself was mostly dry. Dog and I had many pleasant walks along it. But despite our efforts, we could get no closer to it.
There was some water in the river
There are many interesting things to do in Mt Isa, but we all had run out of steam by then, so mostly did housework and arrange some repairs. In the end, the ubiquitous dust (and lead {Pb} warnings) drove us on.
After viewing the dinosaurs, we free camped to the north of the town of Winton. It was a very barren area with climbable jump ups. Interestingly, it had rained recently as there were rivulet marks in the dust, and the smaller rocks were aligned along them.
A jump up to climb near WintonYes, that is me!View back to the rest area
After leaving Longreach, we drove towards Mt Isa, which took us through Winton. I had seen on a tourist brochure that Winton was the dinosaur capital of Australia, and being into prehistoric reptiles myself, I thought I might visit.
Winton is proud to host three unique species of dinosaur – a raptor called Banjo (shown above) and two sauropods called Matilda and Elliot. However, the labratory at Winton (on a jump-up off the highway) has a ten year backlog of excavated bone waiting to be cleaned up. All the digging and cleaning is done by trained volunteers. The digging is done for only three weeks of the year – that is enough to refill the backlog. The guide said that the bones were everywhere.
The cleaning was being done in the lab as we toured. There were eight cleaners sitting with large magnifying glasses and using what looked like dentist drills to remove the rock from the fossils. The guide said they were closer to jackhammers.
I chatted to one of the volunteers who was a bit older than me and was proudly describing a fossil he and an 81 year old colleague and found earlier. (It was the size a large eski.)
A ten year backlog of fossils to clean up
A volunteer needs a few hours training and ten days support to be fully trained. Thereafter they can return as often as they wish. This is what I want to do. I shall return!
Before the dinosaurs there was a shallow sea at Winton
Interestingly, underneath the dinosaur fossils are a bed of marine fossils – there was an inland sea at Winton. From these beds, there were beautiful fossils of crabs, crayfish, mussels and the ubiquitous nautilius.
Longreach is in the midst of a drought – no significant rain in three years I heard someone day. The caravan park has dead trees and little green.
On the approach to Longreach, the first thing you see is a QANTAS 747 tail.
What you do not realise until much closer is that there are two tails; the second is for a 707, but it is dwarfed.
This might have been the plane I first flew to Australia in – that was a 707 from San Francisco.
The QANTAS Founders Museum is quite good, with many models of planes, that give you an idea about how brave those founders were.
There is also a Stockman’s Hall of Fame with a great set of exhibits on pioneer life, including a great section on the Flying Doctor Service.
There is a lot of bird life in Longreach. The amazing ones are the Brolgas which are a bit tame ans visit the caravan camp looking for a feed. At over a metre tall, you are not inclined to disappoint.
We have now begun to head west along the Capricorn Highway. As its name suggests, it quite closely follows the Tropic of Capricorn. After a short period, we had left the sugar cane behind and came on dry pasture land, much like you might find around Goulburn. However, every 40km or so there was another big coal train running towards the coast.
Queensland Rail Engines…
…followed by 20 odd cars of coal
Soon we came on to Blackwater, which had a huge open cut mine just to the south of the highway. As we disagree with Tony Abbott that the future of Australia is coal, we kept going. Although our goal was Longreach, we decided not to drive 700 km in a day so stopped at Emerald in the Botanic Gardens, where we found 8 other caravans with exactly the same idea.
A map of the gardens. Oddly, no Japanese gardens!
That evening I went for a walk with the dog and found the maze. Although it was very dark (no moon, just stars), the Meleluka Maze was quite easy to solve as I could see the scuff marks of the foot prints of the previous visitors in the soil. Assuming no-one got lost in the maze, and everyone makes a random choice at each corner, everyone must walk on the right path, but only a few will take the wrong path. So by following the most footmarks, I made the right turn every time. (My brother, Jean-Leo, would ask, “…but what is a crowd of Japanese tourists went into the maze, took a wrong turn and called for a helicopter to get them out?”)
After the maze I did the Celestial Garden, but that was just a set of concentric circles and no challenge at all to solve. I tried to find a wrong path and failed!
On the way back I met a large cane toad in the middle of the path. I shone my torch on it so the dog would avoid it. The dog was curious and stuck his nose against it. The toad just ducked a bit but showed no concern. Fortunately the dog moved on.
On the way back I met a chinese gentlemen with a long beard doing something to the trees with bread. The following morning I heard and found what he was up to.
