Longreach To Rockhampton

Longreach, We were here last year, so didn't need to spend much time here, still a great town to visit

 

Tower in the back ground. Tropic Of Capricorn marker at the base

 

looks like this automobile has been in the main street a long time, no parking time limits here! 

Having a look around Barcaldine, another beautiful old town 

 

parked opposite the Shakespeare Hotel

 

large windmill in the middle of town 

looking for wisdom 

didn't get any wisdom, so trying for some hair..no luck there either

 

next stop Jericho, another interesting town

 

biblical symbolic monument called the 'Crystal Trumpeters'.

 The structure also includes bricks that are painted the colours of the rainbow and the crystals also reflect a rainbow of coloured light onto the roof of the structure.

 

scrap metal structure of a shearer bearing the Eureka flag during the shearers strike

 

Blackwater, the coal mining Capital of Queensland

 

 that is a mother of a bucket, you have t\o wonder how big the machine was that  it was attached to.

 

 

coal going over the top of the Capricorn highway to fill the coal trains

there were numerous of almost endless trains along this highway

coming into a town called Dingo

  

Heading to Rockhampton for several days to soak in some coastal scenery and some beautiful 28 degree days and a well deserved major service for the JEEP.

 

 

 

Mt Isa to Winton

 

Left Mt Isa and on our way to Winton 

 

 

Stopped for a coffee in Cloncurry

 

 

Landsborough Highway to Winton

 

Stopped at McKinlay to have a look at the Walkabout Creek Hotel.

very interesting, you could almost hear Hoges in the background, there wasn't much else here to see

 

there was nothing at Kynuna, just drove straight through

welcome sign to the Central West QLD Outback 

 

combo waterhole where they reckon that the famous Billabong from Waltzing Matilda was

 

 

free camped here for the night, on our own for a while, very peaceful then had a couple of trucks pulled in at the other end and a motor home behind us, the lady behind us, Lynne, joined us and shared our campfire and travel stories.

 

just getting dinner on the way

 

our view from our Van

 

 sunrise the next morning 

Winton our next stop

nice touch in the main street

 

musical fence

 

 

the very first recital of Walzing Matilda was in the original North Gregory Hotel, Winton

 

chicken race at North Gregory Hotel

 

 

the green one "Hulk" won the race

After the chicken race this guy did some fantastic recitals of Banjo Paterson poems, and told us some history about Banjo, it was very informative and entertaining

 

Just finished a fantastic tour of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs outside of Winton Qld. Went to their Laboratory, where bones from recent digs were being cleaned and sorted, we were able to touch 95 million year old bones and fossils and watch technicians work on cleaning them.
The museum was unbelievable, where bones had been rearranged and almost complete reassembled dinosaurs were on display. We watched films clips of Dinosaurs, reproduced by modern technology and looked so real.
We were taken to the Dinosaur Canyon where there many reproductions of the different ancient animals in the current natural environment of this canyon where you felt you had been transported to that era.

 

 

 

 

 

Us on the tour trolley around the Canyon Of Dinosaurs