Another day of living the dream...
We would have liked to have gone to church today but having to move from the park ended that before we even had a chance to think too much about it...
Steve and I went across to the hotel management to see if their was a cancellation and if we could stay an extra night, We could have except that we both would have had to share one site and only one of us would have had power.. We might have even thought about it but they couldn't guarantee two nights accommodations and we did not want to be hooking up and moving again the following morning even if it was in the same van park...
We decided to drive to the Pelican Caravan Park which was just settled net door and try and see if we could stay two nights there. We were able to book in and our vans, although not side by side kind of backed onto each other so we had a great common area between us. By the time we moved and set up, it was closer to lunch time, so we decided over a cuppa to have an early lunch and take off after lunch and do a little sightseeing around town.
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| Main Street in Winton with its lovely old street lights |
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| Jolly Swagman Statute in the main Street |
Winton is a very old town, with lots of the buildings still made of corrugated iron. Some were in a total state of disrepair and others were quite grand. One thing that did impress us about Winton though was the width of their streets.
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| this house had just crumbled |
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| Corrugated iron home with modern cons ( air conditioner)... Think they might need it out here. |
a slight lean to it.
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| Grander home |
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| Very grand home for Winton |
Then we found this interesting garden.. Of course we had to snap some photos of it.
We saw all this as we were heading out of town to go and find the "Musical Fence" that we had read so much about. It was way out of town... What a little gem. We actually had a lot of fun here as did a lot of other folk who all arrived whilst we were there,
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| Even has grandstands out here for local performerances |
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| There were people everywhere enjoying a little bit of their favourite spot |
After we wandered around here for an hour or more we decided to head back into town.
On our way back into town we passed the very famous Winton Club. This was founded in 1913 and was the site of the first board meeting for Qantas. The club has a display of interesting Qantas artifacts.
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| The Winton Club |
We were heading to a little supermarket we had found just down the road from our van park to grab a few things for lunch the following day. There was a little grocery store just up from our van park. Also the iconic water town was just up from our van park as well.
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| As Winton is very flat this water tower can be seen from miles around the district |
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| Cenotaph outside of the Winton Shire Council. the granite fro this cenotaph came from Rockhampton |
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| Very small helicopter that was just parked on a spare allotment behind our caravan park. |
The Willie Mar Chinese Markets were situated in the street behind our Caravan park. Now these are something else. anywhere else they would have been bulldozed down but here in Winton they are a tourist attraction. They are classed as a heritage site.
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| Willie Mar Chinese Market Garden Heritage Site |
The Watzing Matilda Museum was built down in 2015, this is a real shame as we were looking forward to seeing this. They have finally starting rebuilding the new centre but unfortunately it won't be completed until 2018, which means we are going to miss seeing it. However the back park of the museum was left in tack, so the we were able to go to the Qantilda Museum and see some of the displays, We spent a good hour or more wandering around looking at things from yesterday years. It was all very interesting and we are able to come back today and spend some more time there if we would like.
The lady here was very helpful and gave us maps and told us where to head first to see a short video on the histroy of "Walzing Matilda" and then we were free to wander as we choose.
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| The old rail carriages |
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| It is a big job getting a heavy suitcase way up here.... |
From here we headed off to the building where the video was being played, but on our way we got a little distracted by these displays
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| Ian and Kathy checking out the steam train |
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| A new train driver |
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| Pulling into a station |
After watching the short DVD, we couldn't help ourselves and we had to have a bit of fun with this.
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| Ian and Kathy |
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| Steve and I |
Winton is famous for it's water supply, which comes up to the earth's surface from 4 bores which are all around 1.2kms deep, emerging at a temperature of 83 degrees C, it then has to be cooled to 44 degrees C before being reticulated into the town supply. Most of the towns and properties of the area plumb the Great Artesian Basin as their main water source. At the Qantilda Museum, they had some of these old cooling machines that used to help cool the water.
We found this petrified log interesting also.
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| petrified wood |
We found this merry go round quite fascinating. It was invented by a farmer who had no engineering qualifications and he made it to entertain his children. It was used all around the district for special events, and when the motor was taken off it, his children still had hours of fun just pushing each other around on it.
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| early merry go round |
An old time grader:
They also had an old tree that some aboriginals had started to carve a boomerang out of but had abandoned the job as the tree was not really suitable. You can see clearly where they started through.
The original windmill from in front of the Waltzing Matilda Centre has been moved to the back on the complex whilst the rebuild is taking place,
From here we headed back to the railway station where we took a few more photos...
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| waiting for the train |
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| bit of a gruesome looking ticket seller |
Steve was pretty impressed by this band saw and thought he might send a picture of it back to the guys at work. He wondered what happened to WH&S back in those days.
From here I wanded down to have a look at the little cottage.
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| Old marble tombstone |
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| all different sorts of horse shoes |
I found this cottage fascinating as I can still reminder my grandmother having lots of these things, and they are still familiar to me.
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| old hand wrung washing machine |
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| Ian checking out the old organ... |
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| An assortment of old sewing machines |
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| Old mincers |
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| and early fridge and the old telephones |
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| The old wooden stove |
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| and old ice chest |
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| The old meat safe |
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| My grandmother had an old copper like this for boiling all her towels and sheets. |
Steve and Kathy had gone in to check out the medical building... As we headed off to catch up with them, I couldn't help taking some photos of these amazing vehicles...
We finally found Steve and Kathy, and although they went to check out all the medical equipment, the room they were in also housed other old things that bought back some wonderful memories for us.
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| Shoes from yesteryears |
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| Old roller skates |
By now it was 4pm which is closing time for the museum, so we really will have to go back tomorrow.
After we left the museum, we decided to head out and check out Pelican Waterhole. Pelican Waterhole was the first settlement of Winton, until a flood went through and Robert Allen relocated his store to where the current Winton is now as he didn't want to have to deal with any future flooding. To get out to Pelican Waterhole we had to drive through town again. This is when we discovered the Elderslie Street Waltzing Matilda Centenary Sculptures. These sculptures commemorate the song's first public performance and mark its centenary.
We also saw the heritage listed Corfield & Fitzmaurice Building in the main street. It was once a general store selling all basic essentials for outback survival. It now sells items and has displays on the local wool industry, fossils, opals and a life size dinosaur diorama interpreting the Dinosaur stampede.
It wasn't hard to find the Pelican Waterhole, it is pretty well signposted..
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| some of the old ruins are still left their today. |
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| Monument marking the place where the first town stood. |
We drove a little further on until we came to the billabong, The water in the billabong is contaminated these days and not fit for drinking or swimming in.
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| The road in to the billabong.. |
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| Pelican Waterhole |
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| Spinafex is growing wild out here. |
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| checking out the spinafex |
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| It is dry, very dry out here... |
There are still quite a few ruins left out here from the original township.
It was getting late in the afternoon by this stage, and we had one more place on our list of places to go and visit and that was Long Waterhole. Long Waterhole is a man made waterhole that the locals frequent. there were quite a few free campers out there when we went also. As we drove through town we spotted these three brolgas walking through the park near our caravan park/
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| Amazing birds |
Last stop for the day was a visit to Long Waterhole
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| This is a man made waterhole |
We managed to drive right around the rim of this lake
The sunset was beautiful from out here...
What a great day we had...
Came home to a great meal of fish cooked in mango and coconut cream...
We are finally starting to unwind...
Big day tomorrow as we head out to see the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum.
