We’re past the halfway mark!! Arriving at the Age of Dinosaurs today marked the 8th day of our trip and that means we’re on our way home. The museum on the Southern side of Winton houses the largest collection of fossils in Australia.

We touched a femur fossil ourselves and toured the laboratory, collection room and an incredible exhibit called the “dinosaur canyon”.

The most impressive part of these cool experiences is the respect and homage that is given to the land. The buildings are stunning Architectual features that are designed with some sort of understanding of our landscape. An excess of timber, the concrete coloured in shades of surrounding rock and rusted metal panels fit into the surroundings like its part of the environment.  

Coming from the flat landscape of the last 1000km to these mountains is a shock in itself, but to climb them and stand on the cliff looking out at the landscape was another unexpected joy.

The dinosaur lab was a cool collection of plastered bones, volunteer bone preparers and tour guides. Harvey and I are keen to go and do our excavation course!

The collection room gave us the low down on the local Dino’s - Banjo and Matilda. These two were found in Winton on David Elliot’s property (by David himself) and after being studied were returned to the site. We viewed them together with an explanation of how they were found and why we weren’t viewing replicas- the real thing!!

Taking a Jurassic Park reminiscent buggy we were taken to Dinosaur canyon, but not before having the trees, ground and natural habitat explained to us, including species and age! The guide also explained that the owner of the park wanted people to see the landscape and that’s part of the reason Dinosaur Canyon is 15min from the main reception.  

Dinosaur Canyon was a gorgeous boardwalk that disappeared into the rock and explained the research behind dinosaurs of the area, illustrating findings with displays of the dinosaurs.

Returning to the gift shop, we purchased most of the items available and drove down the beautiful mountain called “Jump Up”. Ask me about it- I bought a souvenir print (I did say I bought most of the gift shop!).

We went into Winton, checked out the Waltzing Matilda museum. Banjo Patterson wrote the epic song on a property outside Winton and performed it for a public audience for the first time at the North Gregory Hotel. We had dinner at the hotel and parked our van out the back. I played their piano and we soaked up all the history over a pub meal.

Our afternoon stroll took us past Arno’s wall- a local legend who built a 70m wall with bricks and randomness he found at the dump. Another thing I’ve learnt out here: this countryside was born, discovered and developed with Indigenous knowledge and Immigrants’ creativity. Arno was an immigrant who came here with a particular skill set and an artistic eye after working in Rome. He still resides in Winton and his home is a sort of gallery.

We’re off to the Willows Gemfields tomorrow and it’s a big driving day- the pub carpark is fairly quiet so we should get a good sleep. Stars are AMAZING out here!