Next stop: the
small town of Winton. We arrived on the hottest day yet, 42 degrees in the
shade! We stayed in a caravan park that had baby lambs and goats that the children
were allowed to bottle feed in the evenings. Wow, this was a hit!
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| They are a bit pushy mum! |
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| Daddy supervising the "sheep walking". |
While in Winton, you've got to check out the "Musical Fence". When I heard about this, it just
had to be the first place we visited! Imagine a bunch of used mufflers, some
scrap metal and old drums randomly hung up, along with a collection of metal
rods and hard rubber pipe to bash them with.... and you’ve got the Winton
Musical Fence!! Actually the musical fence itself is five metal wires attached
to fence posts that you can actually pluck like a guitar. The rest is just cool
percussion stuff. God bless the creative soul in this town that decided to rig
up this amazing bush ensemble. It sure excited this big kid, I could’ve stayed
there banging on different stuff all day if you let me!
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| Bush drums! |
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| Daddy unleashing the muppet within. |
The next leg of the outback dinosaur trail led us to the Age
of Dinosaurs museum just outside of Winton. Incredibly, the inspiration for
this Museum of Natural History is mostly due to the initiative of one local
farmer. Only a handful of dinosaurs have been found in Australia, but two of
the most significant finds were discovered by David Elliot while mustering on
his sheep farm. It was David and Wife Judy that went on to become the founders
of the museum.
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| This life-sized dinosaur replica is down right scary up close! |
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| Posing with it's extended life-sized leg! |
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| Dinosaur claws up close - cool! |
Most surprising of all attractions in Winton was probably
the Waltzing Matilda Museum. A museum devoted to a song? How much can there
really be to see? Well, like most good Australian museums, they tend to not be
limited by their original theme, but love to display a whole bunch of amazing
stuff from the local area’s history too. This museum just kept on going and
going. Out the back were many old specimens of every conceivable gadget used in
everyday life in the early 1900s, from steam trains to dental tools!
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| The girls hanging with Banjo. |
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| Captain & crazy crew. |
While there many hot days here and no phone reception whatsoever,
Winton was a really memorable taste of Aussie outback culture.
It looks like you guys are having such a great time! I love the music on the corrugated fence behind Banjo Paterson - nice touch... :P
Check out the musical ship on the Cooktown page too Em. Who knew Australia had these weird, improv ensembles all over the place? I could just see the Dempsters composing symphonies here! :)