What a lovely little town. We decided to stay behind The North Gregory Hotel for $10 a night. It was Art Deco decorated with a lovely lounge area and good free wifi so we often sat there to do our computer work.There were lovely glass etchings on the dining room doors - Banjo Paterson and Qantas tributes.
The first thing I did was look for a hairdresser as my hair was desperately in need of a haircut. I managed to get a haircut that day, so felt ‘new’ again.
Every afternoon they had some action around the hotel. “Banjo Paterson” would sit at the pianola and get all and sundry to sing Waltzing Matilda and other songs. Winton was where Banjo first penned Waltzing Matilda. He would also recite a bit of Banjo’s poetry later on in the day.
There were also chicken races to raise money for local charities. The chickens were auctioned off to the highest bidder, and then raced around a wire cage following a remote controlled car with food in it. The chickens were different colours and named accordingly. There was Opal, Diamantina (they were multicoloured), Pinky, The Hulk (green), Sunny, Chicken Dinner!
We watched it for two nights before putting a bid in for a chicken. We got The Hulk for $20, and it won!! We got $135. Of course we didn’t get to keep the chicken - it lived to race another day.
We often had a drink at the Tattersalls Hotel across the road and treated ourselves to a few meals there as well. They even remembered Randall’s name by the end of our stay - regulars!
Winton is dinosaur country, and I wanted to see the fossilised dinosaur footprints of a stampede of dinosaurs - the only evidence of a dinosaur stampede in the world. We had to drive out 100 kms, 60 of which was gravel. It wasn't too bad and I felt it was worth it. The footprints are under cover and you can get quite close to them. There were three different dinosaurs represented. The biggest one was chasing the smaller ones.
Another trip we did was to see The Age of the Australian Dinosaurs, about 25 kms out of Winton. It was divided into 3 parts. The setting was magnificent - on top of what was called a jump up.
One of the displays was a bit corny. We went out in a little battery operated van to a site about 2kms from the main site, where there were models of dinosaurs on the rock faces, and some ancient palms that had been donated and were struggling to survive.
The second display was of actual dinosaur bones that had been found in the area, and that was more interesting to see, especially the reconstructed skeleton of a dinosaur that had been named Banjo. We also saw some bones from another dinosaur found in the area named Matilda.
Banjo
The third display was of how the archaeologists deal with the fossils when they are found. There was also a display of fossils found in the area - a fossilised tree branch which was huge and these marine crabs that were amazing!
We had a look at the museum in Winton but were a bit disappointed probably because the original museum had burnt down. They were in the throes of rebuilding the museum and I think it will be pretty good when it is done.
They really play on their dinosaur finds - even the rubbish bins look like giant dinosaur feet!
Opal has been found in this area and as I was walking around the town checking out the opal shops I noticed this lovely sleepy black cat lying on the table outside.
We stayed 4 nights in Winton and really enjoyed getting to know the town.
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