Winton is an interesting place and, although it's a small outback town it punches above its weight when it comes to history.
The birth of Qantas was announced in November, 1920 in Winton with the initial registration of the company – Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd. The first board meeting was held at the Winton Club on February 10th, 1921. The local saying about Qantas that it was conceived in Cloncurry, born in Winton and grew up in Longreach.
However, dinosaurs pre-dated Qantas by abut 95 million years in Winton!
We spent an interesting morning at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs where we were guided through some of their laboratories and exhibits. The Winton area is rich in dinosaur fossils and the Museum of Natural History within the park is a world-class home to Australia's largest collection of dinosaur fossils. Of most interest was about a 100m of a muddy rock face that was lifted over a period of 3 years and placed under cover. At this rock face a herd of at least 150 small two-legged dinosaurs, including carnivorous coelurosaurs about the size of chickens and slightly larger plant-eating ornithopods, came to drink at the edge of a lake. Over 3,300 footprints of these long-extinct dinosaurs are scattered in the mud of the rock face as they fled the scene upon the arrival of a large theropod. This snapshot of a few terrifying moments has been frozen in time, immortalising the event and making Winton home to the only known dinosaur stampede in the world.
We left Winton at 1pm for the short flight to Longreach. We planned to meet one of my long-time flying buddy's Shelley Ross and her husband Pete in Longreach and, as luck would have it, we arrived in the circuit together at Longreach and Shelley landed right behind me in their Cessna 172. I've been on several trips with Shelley and Pete in Australia and on our 2011 African flying trip. They're great company and, on this occasion were accompanied By Kristen and Gabby in their Piper Archer.
We've got a day off in Longreach tomorrow so Bruce and Rob can visit the excellent Qantas Founders Museum and Australian Stockmans Hall of Fame. I've been to both several times so apparently I'm going kayaking with Shelley and Pete!
Leg Summary
Winton (YWTN) - Longreach (YLRE)
Distance: 92nm (170km)
Time: 0.9hrs
Alt: 3,500ft
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| Checking if a Brontosaurus has bad breath |
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| 100's of dinosaur footprints made during a stampede |
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| 747-200 on display at Qantas Founders Museum, Longreach |
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