We decided not to travel on the dirt road to Winton as the rains had knocked it around and we had been told it was pretty rough and as usual not enough time. Everything was shut because of the easter long break so scooted through Longreach ( back to that later) and off to Winton. An amazing museum and info centre dedicated to Waltzing Matilda and the beginings of Quantas - definetly one of the best displays we have seen yet - soo much to see and all really well presented. It took all afternoon to see only part of what they had there, very enjoyable.
Off to Lark Quarry the next morning to see the only found fossil remains of a Dinosaur stampede. Amazing and spooky as we were looking at footprints of animals from over 95 million years ago!!!
On the way back to Winton stayed at a Sation called Carisbrooke. This property is owned by the Phillott family and are related to me as my grandmother was a Phillott. Charles ( they are all Charles) and Penny were lovely to meet and I wished we could have spent more time with them. They have station stays including camping or 5 star cabins and houses with everything supplied. This is there main source of income as they had to get rid of most of their cattle and sheep due to the drought. The place is lush and green - so hard to imagine in drought.
There were also lots of beautiful white lillies all around the lake too.
After spending the day in the pub at Mukadilla just past Roma ( this was entirely due to the floods and constant rain of course). We had set up our little camper in the veranda of the Mukadilla Community Hall ( free hot showers and toilets- way to go) and had no where else to go!! Lucky decision not to go to Carnarvon Gorge, after all the info centre had said the road up there was open ! Westward ho on to Charleville, birthplace of my Dad and his family. Really nice camping spot on the side of the Ward river about 20 kms out of town but very risky had there been rain as there was a lot of dried river silt over everything due to the recent floods. Went to visit Grandma and great Grandparents Charlie and Louise Phillot in the cemetary. Carried on our nostalgic tour out to Wallal - beautiful property, would have been awesome in its working days. Lots of history there for our family. Sheep shed with still working handset leads and wool everywhere. Checked out the shearers quarters and found this rather large kitchen range ( can see why they call it a range) This ones for you Chris - what an amazing coincidence as he told me this is the property where he came up to do a job and stayed in these same buildings.
