Fossil Preparation Laboratory at the 'Age of Dinosaurs'

 We returned to the Museum the next morning after a very cold night. We discovered when we returned from the picture theatre that the heater in our room did not work! Needless to say, we snuggled.

The Jump-Up off in the distance (about 10 km). 

Fortunately, we came at the right time of year so we didn't have to do the 'Aussie Salute'.

Entrance to the Laboratory.

Beginning display of fossils.

A tour guide led us into the main storage area.

Numerous fossils were on display.

Bigger fossils are carefully wrapped and then encased in a hardened plaster.

Actual dinosaur bones that we were allowed to touch. You don't do that every day.

The major large finds are all given names.

An ancient crocodile. You can read about Chookie here.

It's painstaking work. Definitely not for me.

Part of a tree branch from the time of the dinosaurs. There was plenty of water back then and trees grew to enormous heights.

Volunteers removing the dirt and dust from specimens.

A case ready to be broken open.

I reckon Marianne and Robin should give this a go. I spoke to one of the volunteers who comes for a week every year. You are given a whole five minutes training, mostly involving how to turn the tool on and off and where to point it at. They spend about six hours a day feeling really good about themselves for doing something very useful. I would not feel so good.

I can't imagine being presented with something like this and being expected to clean it up.

A view from the Jump-Up as we drove down the hill.

It was Census Day in Australia, so the forms awaited us at our motel. The next morning, a young Polish lady who cleaned rooms at the motel collected the forms. Many backpackers in Oz come on work visas where they are required to spend time in the outback as well as in the big cities. Consequently, most staff in the tourist industry are foreign.

The Royal open air picture theatre

Winton is an amazing little town out in the middle of nowhere and has several wonderful attractions. It's the birthplace of Qantas, the site of the first performance of 'Waltzing Matilda' and still has one of the few remaining open-air picture theatres in the world.

Several patrons waiting patiently for the theatre to open at 7pm.

Earlier in the day, I had wandered inside and you can see the lack of ceiling and the old canvas chairs.

A revolving spotlight cast these lights on the pavement.

I tried out a chair. Note that at 7pm I was just wearing a T-shirt.

A huge flock of noisy galahs gathered on the electricity wires. This is just a few of the flock of hundreds.

At 7pm we paid $20 each and selected our seats. The theatre emphasizes a fifties experience so they show old advertisements accompanied by famous film songs of the period such as 'Moon River'.

The program started with 'God Save the Queen'. Back in the 50's and 60's, everybody would have stood, but not now. There was an interesting short film about the history of the theatre, followed by some advertisements. We were then treated to some cartoons including Popeye and the Three Stooges. I enjoyed the latter, but Marianne has a higher level of taste. The program ended at 8:30 and it had become so cold that we were glad to leave.

On alternate nights, they usually show a real film and John Wayne films are popular.

It's all very basic, but fun.

Did I mention it got cold? Really cold! We had brought our own blanket along, but they do provide them. It's fun to look up at the stars in the cold night air.

We had dinner at the old pub across the road. At 6:30 pm, no jackets and it's quite warm. Two hours later, you shiver even with a heavy jacket on.

Next morning, we stopped to look at the historic dray in the main street.

I had visited Winton back in 2011 when I did a train trip to Longreach and posted a photo of the dray in my blog. My sister Anne told me that Herb Young was our mother's great-uncle/guardian Herbert Young.

Australian Age of Dinosaurs

Marianne has requested that we do a trip to Queensland's outback, so we have driven a long way to reach Winton in Western Queensland. Just south of this small outback town is an attraction where you can see dinosaur footprints at a spectacular museum. This wiki article gives a lot more information.

Entrance to the Museum.

The footprints were actually found about 80 km north-west of Winton but were gradually being damaged by the harsh climate after they were uncovered. A decision was made to transfer them to a new museum that sits on top of a Jump-Up 'mesa', overlooking the vast flat countryside.

There are various parts to the museum and we decided to do the part of the museum where you can see the footprints. We will see the other parts tomorrow.

A special building houses the transferred footprints. The area was cut up into smaller pieces and transferred. Apparently, the cutting up process was easy since much of the area was already crumbling from the harsh environment.

So here is a footprint from a large dinosaur.

Just below the yellow marker is one of the cuts.

The yellow marker is close to a smaller footprint from a much smaller dinosaur. The wiki article gives more details.

If I heard and remembered correctly, the yellow marker is next to the impression made by an ancient lung-fish's upper lip while feeding. I took many more photos, but they all just show impressions of various sizes. However, it is all very impressive.

The building that houses the footprints.

View from the Jump-Up.

Marianne guarding a dinosaur. It was a little chilly with a light breeze. August is often the coldest month in Oz, but I was just wearing a T-shirt. The breeze feels so fresh and clean.

It was a dinosaur of this size that made the larger footprints.

Some of the footprints were left by the parent's child who was playing around.

I was intrigued by this photo of Marianne looking for a bathroom. It looks mysterious with the narrow patch of white from her shirt.

Marianne's brekkie was this stack of corn fritters. I was planning to fib and say that she ordered another round when she polished off the stack, but she only got half-way through.