Greg was up with the sparrows again for his morning constitutional.
After breakfast we drove out to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum where we visited the fossil preparation laboratory, the collection room and lastly the dinosaur canyon.
The fossil preparation lab is where they prepare the fossils for display. That is, they clean them of all dirt, etc in order for them to present nicely. We were shown how they collect the fossils, and then how they 'unpack' them and clean them. Painstaking, and very detailed work; you would need a steady hand indeed.
The collection room is where they display actual bones of the various dinosaurs discovered in the region. The room was purpose built and is kept at 23 degC all year round, with subdued lighting. Here they also showed a short video on how they piece together all the bits and then, via computer technology, bring them to life. Even though they have names such as Banjo, Matilda, Butch, etc, they have no way of knowing whether they were male or female,. Rather, they are named after the person who 'found' them. There were some very big bones in this collection.
Onto the buses and off to the canyon. Here they have five displays of various scenes they believe may have been for real way back when (about 90-100 million years ago). First up was Death in the Billabong; everything in this display is an exact copy of where the bones were found, down to the mud patterns. This was probably the most detailed and interesting display. The others were: Valley of the Cycads (they have planted cycads (about 500 yr old ones) and a number of pine trees; Pterodactylus Family - tiny little things that look rather cute; Dinosaur Stampede - where a big meat eater chased little dinosaurs with a view to eating them; and lastly the Kunbarrasaurus which looks kinda like a crocodile.
After all that excitement, we were pretty hungry when we got home. After lunch we had a little rest and then went back to the Waltzing Matilda Centre to visit the Gallery which was closed for maintenance yesterday. This was nothing to write home about; it had a National Geographic Display of photos taken by various people of various things.
Then it was off to see the Musical Fence and QANTAS Airfield Commemorative Cairn. Neither took too much of our time and it was off to the grocery store and then home. The only thing we have not done here in Winton is the Diamantina Heritage Truck and Machinery Museum; neither of us were particularly interested in seeing these. Mind you, after riding past the building and seeing some of them parked inside, it may be something we just need to see?
Tomorrow, Wendy will do some real work in the morning and then we are off to the Dinosaur Stampede which is about 110km from Winton.
Sunrise
Age of Dinosaur Museum lookout
What this area was presumed to have looked like 90-100 million yrs ago
Dinosaurs
On the bus
Other people on the bus
Greg riding through a flock of Galahs
Age of Dinosaurs Natural History Museum
Greg being eaten by Banjo
Banjo
Views from the Museum
for the idiots
Unpacking the neck vertebrae of a big dinosuar
Real bones in the Collection Room
Above and below - displays to be open by peak season 2021, hopefully
Death at the Billabong
Pterodactylus family
The stampede
Crocodile looking dinosaur
Guardian of the Bridge
Gallery - Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges
Hawker - Flinders Ranges
An accident prone dog outside the Birdsville Pub
Bungle Bungles
Reading Room at the Waltzing Matilda Centre
Map my Ride went a little silly this afternoon!
