Outback 2: Winton, finally

 

A thought occurred to my friend in the service station the morning of day 3. How can you tell how far west you are in Queensland? By the price of diesel. The ouch factor.

Longreach felt nicely familiar this time around. Eagle Street's beautification is complete and it's looking good. But we had another grim motel experience; and there wasn't a bakery open at 07:50 on a Monday morning. We were leaving Longreach by 8, with fleeting glimpses of pellies as we crossed the long bridge over the Thomson's channels. No stopping for great reflections in the still waters.

The road to Winton – and dinosaur country – is mostly as straight as an arrow through largely treeless plains. Sheep walked in line to waterholes, and road trains trundled over milky-watered creeks.

This is the Desert Channels region, a 'largely unmodified environment' said the info-board in the rest area where we stopped for breakkie. DCQ covers 510,000 square kilometres – about a third of the state, but with only 14,500 inhabitants – and includes the Queensland section of the Lake Eyre Basin. It's a government-endorsed region; a community-based, not-for-profit group that develops projects to maintain 'vibrant, healthy and sustainable landscapes, ecosystems, communities and industries'. Their resource management plan, Protecting Our Assets (those assets being land, water, biodiversity and community), lists the major issues they have to contend with. No surprise to see weeds and feral animals at the top of the list, with vegetation management, grazing pressure, water management, land degradation, and 'viability and economics'. There was a regional weed guide in the car park.

The advantage of our day-late drive to Winton was that we could visit the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum without backtracking. It's built atop a jump-up 23 kilometres from Winton, off the highway and along an unsealed side road, the final climb of which is not for trailers or caravans. There is an area where you can leave them at the bottom. There's a great view and the architecture is pretty special, too, and very much in sympathy with the landscape.

The Museum has two of three stages completed. One is a Fossil Preparation Laboratory where you can watch technicians painstakingly restoring, consolidating and storing dinosaur bones. This opened in 2009. The other is the Reception Centre where a Collections Room displays fossil specimens of a giant plant-eating sauropod (Matilda), and a theropod (Banjo), the largest predator ever found in Australia, as well as reconstructions of both creatures. A video describes the story of Australia's fossil finds, starting with the discovery in 1999 of a large thigh bone by David Elliott who was mustering sheep on his property near Winton. The Reception Centre opened a couple of years ago, and has the obligatory cafe and shop. The final stage of construction will provide a natural history museum. You can tour one or other of the current facilities, or both. We chose the Collections Room. More info at http://australianageofdinosaurs.com/aa-visit-us.php.

We drove into Winton and out again, along the Jundah Road, heading for Bladensburg National Park. I'd read about a lookout. Only a few kilometres south of Winton, this seemed like an afternoon-sized expedition. The Park has flat-topped sandstone hills, rocky outcrops, grassy plains and river flats, as well as an interesting pastoral history.

Bladensburg homestead was one of the first sheep stations in the Winton area. First we visited the wool shed, followed by a picnic lunch by a dry creek. The homestead recreates a good feel of the place in the early 1900s, and there's interesting information about flooding in the Channel Country. Lots of corrugated outhouses kept me happy. The verandah overlooked a fabulous plain.

There are a couple of drives in the National Park. We decided on Scrammy Drive, named after a boundary rider, Scrammy Jack, who lived – and died – alone in a simple hut with a horse yard. One of his hands was mangled by a wagon wheel, earning him the nickname. The 40-kilometre drive crosses black soil plains, grassland and channels before climbing a jump-up to a gorge and then the Scrammy Lookout. A 4WD is essential: there should be more warning about a rocky section that could wreck an axle easily. The view from the top was breathtaking and almost worth buying an off-roader.

   

 

 

 

Many Outback towns have a famous hotel, and we were staying in one of them. The North Gregory opened its doors in 1879, when the district of Winton was known as Gregory North. The Hotel's greatest claim to fame is probably that, in 1895, Waltzing Matilda was performed in public here for the first time. One problem with iconic Outback hotels is that they frequently burn down, and the North Gregory is no exception: in 1899, 1916 and 1946. The current version opened in 1955. There's an art deco feel to the public rooms, and I liked the place a lot. The first night, in the Daphne Mayo Dining Room no less, we ate the best fish and chips in a long time. A very long time. 

In a motel car park in Springsure, I had learnt from a Winton-born lad about the fierce competition between his home town and Longreach. Think Manchester and Liverpool; or Cairns and Townsville. He told me that the Waltzing Matilda Centre – the only attraction in the world dedicated to a song – is, in fact, much more than that, and far superior to the Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach. I'm sorry, mate, I didn't go. As with restaurants that feel the need to display photos of their food outside, I just wasn't impressed by the pictures on the exterior or the entrance lobby. And I find it hard to believe it could be better than the Hall of Fame, where I could easily have spent a couple of days immersed in stacks of fascinating info and brilliant displays.

This chap also told me that the origins of Australia's national airline were not in Longreach, and that the Qantas Museum should be in Winton. The North Gregory claims to have been the place where, in the 1920s, locals met to discuss the founding of an outback airline. You're getting an idea of the rivalry, right? I dread to think what happens when the Longreach Thomson Tigers are away to the Winton Devils (NRL).

I liked Winton. In the same way as I liked Windorah. Maybe it's the W. Winton has less than half the number of inhabitants as Longreach – just saying – and, as far as I could make out, most things happen in Elderslie Street.

Dinosaurs are big in Winton. And there were more on the agenda the next day.

Outback 2: Springsure to Longreach (not Winton)

In the Outback even the best-made plans go awry. We never envisaged this for the start of day 2.

We hadn't slashed it on the stony Fitzroy Developemental Road: a screw left somewhere along yesterday's 800-odd kilometres was the culprit. Today was Sunday: Springsure's tyre specialists were closed. Although we had two spare tyres, we carried only one spare wheel (for weight and storage reasons), which my friend fitted quickly. He was concerned we should repair the damaged tyre as soon as possible, thus restoring a spare wheel. The consensus among the lads getting ready for work (in the mines?) in the motel car park was that we should head for Emerald, 66 clicks up the road.

But first, a couple of Springsure snaps.

 Oh, and this is the Virgin and child, of which I spoke yesterday.

The country along the Gregory Highway is lovely – golden grass and rocky outcrops – but marred somewhat by this.

After breakfast en route, the search for a tyre repairer was prioritised. Emerald is about 265 kilometres west of Rockhampton and sits on the Nogoa River, a tributary of the Fitzroy, and just south of the Tropic. It's a big and bustly service and administrative centre for the Central Highlands Region, but it's friendly, with a magnificent station and a good cup of coffee just across the road (and west a bit).

The first service station didn't know where to fix a tyre, but on the forecourt I struck up conversation with a family I felt were local. They had lived for years in Alpha – west along the Capricorn Highway – but were now based in Rocky and had been visiting their son in Emerald. They rang him, and another, trying to locate help for us. Turns out, they knew a friend of mine who owns a nature refuge in the Galilee Basin. They had two big dogs in cages in the back of their ute. One was an Irish Wolfhound-Lab cross, and the other was a mean-looking brute of large and solid bulk. I was suddenly aware of a hovering man stage left: it took him two attempts to interrupt my conversation with the woman.

'Youse get 'im for pigg'n?' he said, with a nod towards the brute.

'Nah, he only needs look at a pig', she replied, and carried on explaining to me that, if we could reach Alpha, Tilson's garage would be sure to fix our tyre.

I thanked her profusely, but I doubted Tilson's would be open for anything but fuel on a Sunday. So I rang another friend, who has spent a lot of time at the aforementioned nature refuge, and knows a lot of people in Alpha. She looked up Tilson's number for me. I was able to confirm we could get the job done. We had until 4 o'clock, well probably 3.30.

There were 163 kilometres to go, but the travel planner had proposed several activities between Emerald and Alpha. We continued according to plan, trying to put punctures out of mind. 

It so happened that this weekend was Anakie Festival of Gems. C'mon, you must have heard of it? Sapphires are mined in The Gemfields; rather messily, we concluded from the mounds of earth and equipment bits left over from digging. My friend was after rock samples; I love jewellery. First, we went to the Festival…

…where I learned that sapphires are sometimes green, and rubies are really sapphires. We drove on to Sapphire and Rubyvale, where, despite smart welcome signs, the overall look is definitely shanty – with liberal splashes of humour.

 

It's good to know another variety of miner is caring for the community, with ne'er an ulterior motive, of course.

In Rubyvale the Gem Gallery is in a class all its own. 

Peter Brown came a-fossicking in the 1970s, a boom time in the Gemfields. With wife Eileen, he opened the Gallery in a renovated miner's hut, in 1988, the same year as the first Gemfest was held. They moved the Gallery to Main Street seven years ago and also run a cafe and holiday apartments. They have garnered tourism awards and RACQ recommendations, but their sapphires are a labour of love. Peter still mines and cuts the gems around which their jewellery is designed and crafted. I am now the proud owner of a gorgeous pair of sapphire stud earrings. My friend got a bag of gravel from the 'pulsator'. You don't really need to go anywhere else for your sapphires, dahling. I loved Rubyvale.

We were rushing back to the Capricorn Highway – needing some mileage on the clock PDQ – when we realised we were crossing the Tropic of Capricorn. Little has been made of this fact locally (there's a sign behind the overgrowth in the picture below), but we get quite excited about major latitudinal circles.

During my Galilee trip in April, I drove over the beautiful Drummond Range: I remembered it was coloured purple. The Range runs north-south roughly halfway between Emerald and Alpha, and 9 km west of Boguntungan (great name) is the Drummond Lookout. Another day; another lunch with a view. The highway and the railway crisscross their way up and over the hills.

Soon after lunch we entered the Lake Eyre catchment. Is this another definition of the Outback? It was beautiful country, but some of the trees looked dry and grey, as if only just hanging on. A few bottle trees looked dead, but maybe they'd shut down operations until the next rains.

As we had chatted to people in at our last call in The Gemfields, they'd been fairly unanimous in their belief that we should not attempt to reach Winton that day: there was not enough daylight left, they said, for such a distance. So, while the tyre was mended in Alpha, we found alternative accommodation in Longreach, 180 kilometres nearer, and delayed our arrival at the North Gregory Hotel, Winton. As well as the roo danger, I wanted to be able to enjoy what would be a new (to us) section of the Landsborough Highway.

We still had to put our foot down. The road was straight. There was, however, a distraction in Barcaldine, where the Labor Party was founded following the shearers' strike in 1891. The Tree of Knowledge, under which the strikers met, was poisoned with Roundup in 2006, but its Ghostly remains form part of an impressive commemorative landmark. Late afternoon sun cast a warm glow over Barcaldine's main drag. 

Beyond Barcaldine the sun was blinding, and the number of dead roos disturbing, especially by the creeks. We had a near miss and immediately witnessed someone else's. At one point we pulled over until the sun dipped below the horizon: neither of us could see, to drive or scan. We'd been given good advice not to continue much further.

Like last year, we were in Longreach on a Sunday evening when eating options are few. The Eagle's Nest Bar & Grill – in Eagle Street, natch – came to our rescue again. As we ordered a beer at the bar, the Irish waitress exclaimed, 'You're English? What on earth are you doing in Longreach?' Hmm.

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