Winton : Lark Quarry and seeing stars.

On our second day, we again chose to do a tour with Red Dirt tours out to Carrisbrooke station and the lark quarry dinosaur stampede site. 

A lot of people often comment to us about why would you pay for a tour? Well because you learn a lot and often get more information than you would learn yourself and you get to see things you wouldn’t otherwise see. It also supports the local economy.

Our lovely tour guide Ange was very informative about the area and had us all enthralled , as we drove along she pointed things out, like the fence posts made from a particular type of local tree, that is extremely weather resistant, explaining that the fences we could see were potentially 80 or 90 years old. She also explained why the area has very few trees growing.

It’s because they have a black soil plain. This is due to the area 95 million years ago having sand and silt deposits from the retreating inland sea.

It is because of this soil that they find the dinosaur fossils , as the soil and the clay beneath it kind of rotate slowly forcing what’s underneath to the surface , during the process of wet season and then the drying and cracking of the clay. Anyway this constant movement makes it very difficult for trees to grow strong root systems and hence few trees.

The formation above is Wintons version of the three sisters. They are name Mary (far left), Maude (in the middle) and Kate on the far right, at this stage Kate is still attached to the Mesa, however in time erosion will cause her to seperate . These formations were named for the sisters of the geologist whom discovered  them. The formation show the various  stages of erosion on a butte.

Lark Quarry Dinosaur stampede

95 million years ago Lark quarry was  part of a large river plain ,with sandy channels, swamps and lakes brimming with life , the surrounding area were lush rich forests full of cypress and ferns 

At the time of the stampede 

Herds of dinosaurs were  at this site drinking at the lake , they estimate there were about 150 dinosaurs , carnivorous coelurosaurs (chicken sized) and the larger plant eating ornithopods (Emu sized) at this lake when a large carnivorous theropod (like a T Rex but smaller about 5 foot tall at the hip) approached the lake . They can tell by the footprints that the theropod slowed , then stalked and charged at the other dinosaurs 

In the image above i drew lines on my photo (they are not on the fossil) the green circles show the footprints of the Theropod moving forwards towards the lake edge and the herds, the blue lines indicate the directions the herds ran trying to escape from the Theropod.  

Above shows the very clear footprints of the Theropod.

Above are the footprints of the Ornithopods. 

Again this site was discovered by accident , when a farmer was looking for opals. 

This is the only fossil in the world that clearly indicates a stampede. It is institu where it was found , and now has a large building protecting it, with air systems to keep the fossil at an optimum temperature. There is still some rock covering the fossil in other areas , but at this stage they are happy to leave it covered to preserve it.

It was really really interesting  and was again brought to life by a very passionate tour guide.

After this tour we returned to town, quickly changed into warmer clothes as we were heading up to the 

Gondwana stars observatory

I have no photos at all except above that shows you the observatory during the day. The observatory is a recognised dark sky sanctuary. We couldn’t resist the opportunity to see the stars . The guide lead us into the observatory where we sat in reclining seats and had the various stars and solar systems pointed out to us. We also had the opportunity to study the stars through various telescopes.

Astronomy is just so amazingly interesting , i loved it.

Willie Mar’s fruit and Vege shop and market garden.

This shop and its market garden is  in the process of being restored, secured for the future.

The store  opened in 1923 by Willie Marr Senior to sell the locals produce from his market garden located behind the shop.

Willie Mar’s son Willie Mar jnr later took over the business , adding the counter top seen above and providing a delivery service. The business continued up until 2000 when a large flood wiped out the garden, at this stage Willie Mar Jnr was in his seventies and decided to close the business.   

We both really enjoyed Winton, we enjoyed a lovely drink at the Winton Hotel, the publican was very friendly as were the locals, and we had a lovely huge meal at the Tattersalls hotel on our last night.

Until the next blog

Everyday deserves a story

The Touring Knights