FOSSILS AND DINOSAURS

Yes, we are two old fossils, but that's not what I'm talking about.  We left Julia Creek yesterday (pop 500, pop of the whole shire 1,000) and headed over tarred but bumpy roads to Richmond and Hughenden.  We're back in black soil country, which cracks badly in the dry season and the road moves with the drying soil, forming small hills and valleys even though the actual terrain's quite flat.  Very noticeable when towing the caravan.

Julia Creek actually has a native animal which lives in the cracks.  It's a tiny marsupial called a Julia Creek dunnart.  We saw a couple of stuffed ones at the very good info centre, they will have live ones for viewing when the new centre's finished next month.  They are nocturnal so I guess they're building a noctarium.  Cute little guys, the size of a mouse, they can carry up to 8 little babies in their pouch.  They live on insects and caterpillars so the farmers like them.  Found only within 100 kms radius of Julia Creek.

At Richmond we stopped at the excellent fossil museum called Kronosaurus Korner, which also has a  nice cafe which doesn't charge the earth.  The fossils are awesome, all found in the area, and including a replica of the Kronosaurus skeleton fossil found near here, as well as Minmi, a much smaller fellow also found in the area.  You can look for fossils yourself, 16kms from town- really good fossils are still being found, some by tourists.  An English couple found something just last year which excited the scientists.

Fossilised skeleton of a plesiosaur, the first complete one ever found in Australia.The finder was so pleased he opened the excellent museum at Richmond, which has many other fossil remains.

At Hughenden, they have a replica of the huge dinosaur known as Muttaburrasaurus (found at Muttaburra) as well as dinosaur eggs and many, many others.  A great area for anyone interested in these things. Another unique feature is the Flinders poppy, named after the local river, which although being the longest river in Queensland, is currently dry, as it is every winter.

Today we visited Porcupine Gorge, some 60kms from Hughenden, and did a walk down the steep sides of the gorge to the creek at the bottom.  The gorge is 27 km long and quite deep, very impressive.

              Porcupine Gorge from the lookout

One of the rockpools at the bottom of the gorge

On the rocks below we found a dessicated cane toad, which looks as if it died laughing.  

Tomorrow we're off to Winton, for more of the Dinosaur Trail- this is where you can see the rocky remains of a dinosaur stampede from millions of years ago.  Three days there, then Longreach- Chris has the car booked in for a service and we want to see the Stockmen's Hall of Fame and the Qantas museum.