Earlier this month I took two days to drive to Brisbane from Mount Isa. I started late on the first day so only drove five hours to Winton before doing the big leg of 1400km on the second day. Distances are enormous in Queensland. This road sign is just south of Cloncurry – and I had already travelled 130km from Mount Isa before hitting this sign. The sign is on the start of the Landsborough Highway heading south before linking up with the Warrego Hwy at Morven and then on to Brisbane.
The clouds gathered as I drove south into the flat agricultural country of McKinlay Shire. It’s about 350km from Cloncurry to Winton and there are only two tiny settlements along the way at McKinlay and Kynuna.
I landed in Winton late afternoon. Banjo Paterson wrote Australia’s unofficial national anthem Waltzing Matilda (and it is far better than the strident pompous dirge that is the official anthem) in 1895 while staying at a station near Winton. This monument to Paterson and his song is outside what used to be the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton which burned down on June 18, 2015 (coincidentally my birthday, though I was far from the scene at the time). Winton Shire Council plan to rebuild the centre at a cost of $20 million.
The most well-known building in Winton is the North Gregory Hotel. This is the fourth building on this site and like the Waltzing Matilda Centre fire has played a big part in its history. The first North Gregory Hotel opened in 1879 and it hosted the first live performance of Waltzing Matilda in 1895. The building was demolished in 1900 but the second building was destroyed by fire in 1915. The third was also lost to fire in 1946. In 1955 Winton Council erected the current building in art deco style and instructed management to run the hotel “on first class lines”.
The main street has other imposing buildings such as the heritage-listed Corfield and Fitzmaurice building. This general store was opened in 1878 serving the local population until 1987. It is now partly the home of Combo Crafts selling homemade arts and crafts while the remainder of the building is a museum promoting Winton’s dinosaur heritage.
I drove 20km out of town to have a quick look at the bleak but compelling Bladensburg National Park. The park has flat-topped mesas and plateaus, residual sandstone ranges, vast grassland plains and river flats but without a 4WD, I could not explore more interesting sections.
I drove down the River Gum Route and saw the intriguing “Cragg’s Grave”. Richard Cragg was a mail contractor who died on December 30, 1888, aged 46. The cause of his death is unknown, although it is believed he was accidentally poisoned. Cragg came from Manchester, England, with his wife and seven children. Their descendants still live in the Winton area.
I came back to town in time for beer o’clock and sampled a beverage at the brightly decorated Tattersalls Hotel where a handful of patrons watched the cricket on TV.
The following morning I was on the road around 5am, before first light, as I had a full day of driving ahead. This photo was taken on the road leaving Winton.
About 20km south of Winton is the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum. It was too early for it to be open but I have been there before. The museum is 10km off the highway in the hills (known as the “Jump Up”) overlooking town. The idea for the museum came after local farmer David Elliot found a dinosaur fossil in 1999. It turned out to be a giant femur from a Cretaceous sauropod that roamed the Winton area 95 million years ago. More finds followed and Elliot opened up a museum to show off the ancient local wildlife.
Two hours later I arrived in Longreach where I stopped for breakfast and a crucial cup of coffee. I’ve been to Longreach many times before but I always enjoy stopping here. All Longreach’s streets, including Duck St, are named for birds found in the area.
I didn’t take too many photos on the long drive that followed but I stopped near Blackall to take a photo of these drovers moving cattle along the stock routes by the side of the highway. The stock routes are known as Queensland’s Long Paddock and while trucks have mostly replaced drovers, the stock routes still form an important supplementary food source during droughts.
Just like the previous day, this one ended with a beer. This one was in Brisbane, having arrived to my place north of the city around 7.30pm – 14 and a half hours after leaving Winton. Cheers!
It’s the nature of my job in the news industry that means working weekends are a regular fact of life. But though my working hours are not social I do have a pact with myself to try and keep Sunday afternoon sacrosanct and take one of the many wonderful bush walking opportunities in the North West. Of late I have been trying out many trails around Lake Moondarra and the area never ceases to lift my spirits.
Woolly Days 