The unofficial national anthem "Waltzing Matilda" was penned at nearby Dagworth Staion by Banjo Patterson in 1895. The Waltzing Matilda centre pays homage to the history of the song. You can listen to the many & varied versions of the song. Probably the most resounding version was recorded live at the 1987 Rugby Union World Cup in Sydney when the crowd of 104,00 sang along to the chorus. It is amazing & typical of Aussies backing the loser, that a song about a down & out swagman stealing a sheep & committing suicide rather than face imprisonment when confronted by the squatter & the troopers has become legendary & is sung all around the world by Australians as a tune identifying us more than our National Anthem.
The rest of the museum is a fascinating collection of historical items from trains to bottles, farming equipment to hospital implements. Certainly worth a couple of hours roaming through the various rooms & sheds. A museum with lots to look at & not too much to read. Tony even found the car that he learnt to drive in. An old 1963 Vauxhall belonging to his Pop.
Recognised the style of a painting hanging behind the entrance desk to the centre & the attached sign confirmed it was painted by Peter Mortimer. We use to frame Peters' paintings back in Dubbo. His paintings capture the iconic outback landscape & its horsemen with a modern presentation. He has won many awards including a couple of Winton art prizes.
We stayed at the Tatts caravan park across the road from the pub. A good little park, a patch of grass on each site, free washing machines ( a rarity & good chance to catch up on the washing) & clean amenities. Steaks at the pub are more the size from dinasours than cattle. A nice old pub where the publican has created a great outback pub atmosphere with lots of memorabilia.
We shook ourselves out of bed for the ANZAC Dawn Service at 5.30am. Something we have always been going to do, so with a mild temperature & a short walk to the Cenotaph it was as good an opportunity as any to attend this moving ceremony. Not many old diggers but a good crowd & a nice ceremony.
The march down the Main Street featured an old army tractor that a Gympie guy had found out in Winton, restored & promised to drive it back twice for the ANZAC march. In his interview on ABC he said he was glad he didn't have to drive it out again as this was the second time so his promise was fulfilled.
A good turn up for the march, including mums & dads pushing prams, lots of kids, the pony club & schools. I guess that didn't leave too many of the towns population left to line the street?
20 km out of town is the "Age of the Dinasour " museum. Set on top of one of the many mesas (jump up) the building is part of the landscape. A modern sculptural building rising from the harsh terrain it is made with rough cement walls, coloured & textured to look exactly like the rocky ground. It is worth the trip out to see.
This is a working museum where staff & volunteers are involved in the recovery of the fossils from the property where they were discovered. Then begins the painstaking task of drilling with an instrument like a larger dentist drill through the hard rock to unearth the fossil parts, identify them & then reconstruct the pieces together like a giant jigsaw. The two dinasours they are working on are called Banjo & Matilda. These are the only two of their species to be found in the world. They were found together in the same area, the assumption being one got stuck in mud & the other tried to eat him. The fossils are their bodies from the hips down indicating the rest of the bodies just rotted away while the legs fossilised in the mud. This is theory only & open for disagreement. Further south is the Lark Quarry, home of preserved tracks of the only known dinasour stampede 93 million years ago.
The scenery was pretty amazing from the top of the mesas. They form a chain, rocky, red & with hardy trees & shrubs. Either side of the mesas the country opens up to flat grassy plains in complete contrast .
The small town of Winton has a lot of interest for the traveller along with a couple of good watering holes.
Now the flies, did I mention the flies? Up on the mesas they are there in 1000's!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment