Winton part 2

Read Winton (ie part 1) first.

While in Winton, we camped behind the Anglican church and did some work for them. We are registered as Bush Church Aid (BCA) Nomads.

My job (Peter) comprised helping with the computer and Lee prepared a lot of craft materials for school scripture. Thewre were some other BCA Nomads there as well. They were from the Blue Mountains. One of the ladies' jobs was sewing.

The husbands were given outside maintenance jobs, including raising and filling in the gaps between the foundations (stumps) and the church floor.

On the second Sunday, we had church at 8:30 am then a service at Winton Hospital and a quick lunch before driving 380 km to Boulia for a 6 pm service. There were 11 extras at this service, from Nambour Uniting Church. They were doing voluntary work in the district repairing airstrips on cattle stations for the Flying Doctor and Flying Pardre.

We were amazed to see an old friend in the group, Graham Warne, who was the minister of Engadine Church of Christ nearly 40 years ago

 

Boulia is a long way from anywhere, about half way between Mt Isa and Birdsville, and has a direct road link (4wd and road trains only) to Alice Springs.

The only settlement between Boulia and Winton is the Middleton Hotel. We stopped for a drink on the way out and for lunch on Monday on the return trip

Boulia is famous for the Min Min Lights, which can occasionally be seen in the isolated country east of town. The first recorded sighting was by a drover who got such a fright he galloped his horse back to Boulia. The exhausted horse dropped dead when he reached town.

The publican at Middleton has seen the Min Min Lights, he said they look a motorbile light in the distance, but sometimes jumped up and down. Their origin is a mystery

This "big sky" photo was taken at the site of the old Min Min Hotel.

This photo is the road from Boulia to Winton. It is bitumen all the way but much of the track is only wide enough for one vehicle. When two cars meet, both take one set of wheels off the bitumen. When you meet a road train, you give him the whole road, and get right off the bitumen.

The long road home, note the shimmer due to the sun and the very flat landscape. Note also the thick Mitchell Grass, due to the heavy rain earlier in the year.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Winton. The minister, Bob Witten, and his wife Sue, made us feel very welcome. A country parish like Winton is a huge task, and the Wittens are admirably qualified for the work they are doing at Winton.

Today (14th July) we are at Camooweal 13 km from the Qld/NT border, a week away from beginning our VISE placement. But this will have to wait till the next email.

Thanks to those who have been praying for us in Winton. Please continue to pray for Winton, especially for the church and for the new school chaplain, who started today, a young man from New Zealand named Lorenzo.

God bless,

Peter and Lee.

Winton

We arrived in Winton on Wed 24th June and left on Saturday morning 11th July.It was wonderful to be here. Our time in Winton can be divided into sightseeing, the opening of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, BCA work at St Paul's Winton and a quick trip to Boulia.

We took a mini bus tour to Lark Quarry, 120 km south over a lot of bumpy roads. Most of the landscape around Winton is flat, but there are several large mesas (called jump-ups locally). These are flat topped hills, remnants of a former landform level. Lark Quarry is in jump-up country and is the site of a Dinosaur stampede that occurred a long time ago on the muddy shore of an old inland sea.

A large shed has been erected to preserve the footprints of one very large and many smaller dinosaurs.

Large dinosaur footprints run up the picture from the bottom to the top, near the rail. Small ones are scattered everywhere.

Water is precious here, wherever there is water, you see birds and usually visitors free camping. This is an area called Long Waterhole just outside Winton.

Yellow billed Spoonbill (left) and Royal Spoonbill at Long Waterhole. Note they are both standing on one leg

 

Sunset at Long Waterhole- spoonbills and one of several caravans that were parked for the night.

Friday 3rd July was the official opening by the Premier of Qld of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum on a jump-up a few kms east of Winton. Elliott the dinosaur was the first large dino specimen found in Australia about 10 years ago, by David Elliott, a local sheep grazier. David is the driving force behind the museum, which is in the process of becoming the centre of dinosaur research in Australia.

This photo was taken at the press conference at the opening, where three new dinosaur finds were announced (Clancy, Matilda and Banjo), all in the Winton area. David Elliott is in the tie and black hat. The Premier of Qld, Anna Bligh is just to the right of some large bones.

The most exciting event at the opening was "The Voices of Winton" singing Waltzing Matilda to open the ceremony. Bob and Sue Witten (the Anglican minister and his wife) are choir members, and Lee was invited to join for the occasion.

 

Now see Winton Part 2.

Sydney to Winton

Dear All,

Many of you will remember our last two winter trips, well we are off again, this time heading to the Northern Territory, to complete a VISE (Volunteers for Isolated Students Education) placement at a cattle station called Nutwood Downs (H on the map below) about 100 km north east of Daly Waters.

We arrived at Winton, Qld. Wednesday 24th June and we have really enjoyed our trip so far.

This map was produced a while ago to show our proposed itinerary, but our route has already slightly deviated, as you will see shortly.

We left Sydney Sunday 7th June to visit family in Wagga (O) then Griffith (C). The road from Griffith north to Qld is known as the Kidman Way and is the most direct route for Melbournians to escape to North Qld. We stopped at Cobar (D) then Cunnamulla (not labelled but just about 100 km nth of the NSW/Qld border).

From there we enjoyed 3 lovely days and nights with the family where we had our first VISE placement near Wyandra (E). We had our first VISE tutoring placement with this family two years ago

Our first real tourist stop was the Blackall Woolscour, which only operates now for tourists, but for nearly 100 years washed wool from this district to get rid of excess weight for the trip overseas to the mills. The scour was steam driven, and is the only one still operating in Australia. In the foreground is an artesian bore, which has been releasing water for over 100 years.

Blackall Woolscour, steam driven - and Artesian Bore

Blackall, like most towns in outback Qld relies on artesian water. The Council Aquatic Centre comprises a thermal pool and Spa, which we sampled for a few relaxing hours. It wqasn't exactly crowded, although there were lots of tourists in town. The small mushroom shaped tower behind Lee produced a shower of water nearly too hot to stay under. By the way, the weather was fine, 27 max and about 8 min at night

Blackall thermal Aquatic Centre

Our deviation from the map above was to turn left at Blackall to Isisford, then north to Longreach.We went to Isisford because of a highly recommended bush camping spot on the Barcoo River. Some of you will know Banjo Patterson's poem "A bush christening", which begins "On the Outer Barcoo where churches are few....." The Barcoo is one of the easternmost rivers in the Lake Eyre Basin catchment.

Lee and van beside Barcoo River at Isisford

We camped three nights at this beautiful spot, but left quickly the fourth morning after it started to rain. The campsite was black dirt which quickly changed to thick gooey slippery mud. We got out just in time. While we were there we sampled some beautiful birdlife and beautiful reflections on the still but very muddy water (there was a weir just below the town). My favourite photo was of the Whistling Kites (small eagles) in a tree over the river

Whistling Kites beside Barcoo River

After the great escape from the mud, we travelled to Longreach. We didn't do the standard tourist things as we had been there before (Qantas Museum etc). Instead we spent 3 hours at Lilly's Lagoon on the edge of the Thompson River. A most beautiful spot, great birdlife as well.

Lilly Lagoon at Longreach

Royal Spoonbills above Lilly Lagoon

And so we arrived at Winton, so far we have covered 2,600 km. We plan to stay here for about 2 weeks, seeing the sights and doing some voluntary work with the Anglican Church here. I guess our time in Winton will occupy the next blog.

God bless,

Peter and Lee.