Fact and Fiction

The landscape of western Queensland is dramatic. After a good wet season, Mitchell grass grows thickly on the vast plains. Elsewhere the land is stony and dotted with clumps of hardy spinifex. But if you’d travelled this way 95 million years ago, the scenery would have been very different. In the Mid-Cretaceous period forests of conifers, lush ferns and flowering plants covered the land, watered by rivers and streams which flowed into a huge inland sea. And it was inhabited by dinosaurs! 

In August 2022, we followed the Dinosaur Trail through western Queensland, on a route from Winton to Richmond, Hughenden and Muttaburra, all locations where dinosaur fossils have been discovered. Put your Australian Dinosaur Trail Pass in your pocket and join us on a journey back in time to the land of the dinosaurs. 

Cloncurry

After discovering some famous Australian icons in Winton we found more, one fictional and one a real person, on our journey north from Winton to Cloncurry. 

There’s not much to the town of McKinlay: a few houses, a couple of stores and a pub. So why do most people who travel the 348 kilometres between Winton and Cloncurry stop for a while? The big attraction in McKinlay is the Walkabout Creek Hotel, which made its cinematic debut in 1986.

The pub, originally called the Federal McKinlay Hotel, played a starring role in the first Crocodile Dundee movie when, in the opening scenes, Mick Dundee wrestled with an enormous crocodile. 

When the movie became a box office hit the hotel was sold and relocated to the Landsborough Highway and its name changed to reflect its fame.

Like our fellow travellers we stepped inside to see the collection of props and sets from the movie and enjoy a cool drink at the bar. 

In Cloncurry we went to the John Flynn Museum to learn more about another famous Australian, revered as the founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. 

In the early years of the 20th century, the Reverend John Flynn saw the need for a medical service for people living in Australia’s inland. With the help of Hudson Fysh, one of the founders of QANTAS, John Flynn developed a plan for an air ambulance which would carry a doctor and medicines to outback locations. 

The first air ambulance took off from Cloncurry on 17th May 1928 bound for Julia Creek, 137 kilometres away. 

While the advent of the Flying Doctor Service brought medical care to the outback the problem of communication over such vast distances remained. John Flynn worked with Alfred Traeger, an electrical engineer from Adelaide, to develop a radio capable of communicating with people both on the ground and in the air. The first radio was installed in a Flying Doctor plane in 1934.

From that single plane in Cloncurry in 1928, the Royal Flying Doctor Service has grown to a fleet of 71 planes operating out of 23 bases around Australia. Hundreds of dedicated staff bring medical care to around 1,000 patients every day.

As we camped that night in an isolated spot near Cloncurry, we reflected on the vision and work of the Reverend John Flynn. We were almost 800 kilometres from the nearest city, and it was easy to imagine how grateful we would be if we needed the services of the Flying Doctor. 

A Dinosaur Stampede

The landscape of western Queensland is dramatic. After a good wet season, Mitchell grass grows thickly on the vast plains. Elsewhere the land is stony and dotted with clumps of hardy spinifex. But if you’d travelled this way 95 million years ago, the scenery would have been very different. In the Mid-Cretaceous period forests of conifers, lush ferns and flowering plants covered the land, watered by rivers and streams which flowed into a huge inland sea. And it was inhabited by dinosaurs! 

In August 2022, we followed the Dinosaur Trail through western Queensland, on a route from Winton to Richmond, Hughenden and Muttaburra, all locations where dinosaur fossils have been discovered. Put your Australian Dinosaur Trail Pass in your pocket and join us on a journey back in time to the land of the dinosaurs. 

Dinosaur Stampede National Monument at Lark Quarry Conservation Park, Winton

Our dinosaur adventure began 110 kilometres south of Winton at the Lark Quarry Conservation Park, home of the world’s only known fossilised dinosaur stampede. 

A 700 metre walk around the site took us up onto a ridge behind the Trackways conservation building, which protects more than 3,300 fossilised dinosaur footprints. 

From here we could see the shapes and colours of the Winton Formation, a landscape created up to 98 million years ago and characterised by Jump-Ups; red mesas capped with hard weather-resistant stone. It was hard to believe this dry, rocky land was once covered by a dense forest of tree ferns and conifers. 

Then a short walk along the pathway leading to the building took us back 95 million years, to the day the footprints in the Trackways were laid down. 

Inside the building, we learned the story of the Trackways. 

The dinosaurs were chicken-sized carnivorous coelurosaurs and larger plant-eating ornithopods. A huge carnivorous therapod saw the herd at the water’s edge and attacked, causing a stampede as the smaller animals tried to run away. 

Thousands of footprints left in the thick mud at the edge of the lake were preserved by a unique series of events. A few days after the stampede rain fell, raising water levels in the lake and laying down a covering of sediment over the prints. Eventually they were hidden under several metres of compressed layers of sand and mud. 

Fast forward 95 million years to the late 1960s, when a station manager discovered what he thought were the fossilised footprints of birds in a dry creek bed. After a local expert identified them as dinosaur prints, the site was visited by scientists from the Queensland Museum. In 1971, excavations revealed more than 3,300 dinosaur footprints made by the coelurosaurs, ornithopods and the hungry therapod.

To protect the stampede tracks from the weather, a shelter was erected over the site and, in 2002, the Trackways conservation building was constructed. Made from locally sourced rammed earth, powered by solar panels, and equipped with water tanks and composting toilets, the eco-friendly building sits comfortably in its surroundings.

From a raised platform along one wall, we could clearly see how the stampede unfolded. The therapod’s huge footprints show its determined advance towards the lake while the  tiny bird-like tracks of the coelurosaurs and the larger ornithopods’ three-toed tracks are scattered in all directions, an indication of the panic that ensued as they tried to escape. 

A day out at Lark Quarry was a great start to our journey on the Dinosaur Trail. 

Joining Jo for Monday Walks

Outback History

Western Queensland Road Trip #7 Charleville

The small town of Charleville, established when the first hotel was built in 1865, now has a population of around 3,500 people. Despite its isolated location in outback Queensland, Charleville has a rich history full of intriguing personalities and interesting places.

The building now known as the Charleville Historic House Museum has stood on Alfred Street since 1887. Originally the town’s first bank, it was also a boarding house before being purchased by the local Historical Society in the 1970s.

In the main room, the vault once used by the bank to store money now holds precious documents and records. The museum is full to the brim with dozens of items once used in everyday life, while outside is a collection of vehicles and machines from bygone times.

Two more relics of the past stand proudly at the Graham Andrews Parklands on the Mitchell Highway.

The Steiger Vortex Guns are two of six built in 1902 in Brisbane on the orders of the Government Meteorologist Clement Wragge. He’d heard about the guns being used in Austria to prevent hailstorms in wine growing areas. By firing ammunition into clouds, storms were dispersed. Vibrations in the clouds also caused rain to fall and Clement hoped similar guns might be used to break a long running drought in outback Queensland. He brought his guns to Charleville and, on 26 September 1902, ten shots from each cannon were fired into the sky. Sadly the experiment was a failure – no rain fell in Charleville that day.

The Charleville base of the Royal Flying Doctor Service is located further along the Mitchell Highway at the airport. Founded by the Reverend John Flynn, the Royal Flying Doctor Service has provided medical care to those living in outback Australia since 1928.

At the Visitor Centre, videos explain the history of the service and dramatic recordings bring to life the first hand experiences of patients and their families. Displays of historic medical equipment and radio technology are compared with 21st century methods of health care in the outback.

The hangar used by the Royal Flying Doctor Service dates from 1943. It was built as part of the occupation of Charleville Airport by the United States 45th Air Base Group, 43rd Bombardment Group, 63rd and 65th Bomb Squadrons and the 8th Material Squadron during the Second World War. From 1942 to 1943 more than 3,500 US servicemen lived at the top secret site, which was used to store and maintain American B-17 Bombers. Most of the structures built to cater for the servicemen are long gone, but the foundations of mess halls and shower blocks remain as evidence of the war time activities in this remote posting.

Many of those American servicemen would have enjoyed themselves at the Saturday night dances at the Hotel Corones. Built by Greek migrant Harry Corones in the 1920s, the hotel was famous for its luxurious interiors – marble floors, beautiful furniture and a grand staircase leading to the first floor where the accommodation included ensuite bathrooms, a rare luxury otherwise not seen outside of Brisbane.

An afternoon tour of the hotel tells the story of Harry’s rise from penniless immigrant to successful business man and visionary. Visitors can order a drink at the bar, once the biggest in the southern hemisphere, and climb the silky oak staircase to the rooms where dignitaries including Princess Alexandra, performer Gracie Fields and Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam have stayed. The tour ends in the dining room with an afternoon tea of scones, jam and cream.

A stroll along the Wadyanana Pathway on the banks of the Warrego River soon works off that delicious afternoon tea. Charleville is located on traditional Bidjara lands and the pathway, designed by local Bidjara residents, tells the story of Mundagudda, the Rainbow Serpent.

It’s also a timely reminder that this land was occupied long before that first hotel was built in 1865.

Join Jo for Monday Walks