Things To Do in Winton

On the Dinosaur Trail

Lark Quarry (www.dinosaurtrackways.com.au) is one of the most amazing fossil sites in the world, recording a dramatic moment in time 95 million years ago, when the hot, dusty area outside the town of Winton was once a small prehistoric lake. A large flesh-eating carnosaur trapped around 150 smaller coelurosaurs and ornithopods at the lake edge, causing them to flee in panic. It is the only surviving record of a dinosaur stampede on Earth. The tracks were undiscovered until 1962 and are now protected by conservation works that include an elevated walkway for best viewing and photography of the tracks. A lookout offers panoramic views over the vast Lark Quarry environmental park. There are also interpretive displays, picnic tables, and toilets.

Lark Quarry is 110km (69 miles) southwest of Winton, on the mostly unsealed Jundah Road, about a 2-hour drive. If you are driving yourself, check road conditions and directions with the Waltzing Matilda Centre (tel. 07/4657 1466) before setting out. Several companies operate tours from Winton and Longreach, including Carisbrooke Tours (tel. 07/4657 0084; www.carisbrooketours.com.au) and Outback Aussie Tours (tel. 1300 787 890 in Australia; www.oat.net.au). Lark Quarry is open daily from 9am to 4pm. Admission is A$11 adults, A$6 school-age children, and A$27 per family (take cash). Entry is by guided tour only, daily at 10am, noon, and 2pm. For more information call the Winton Visitor Information Centre (tel. 1300/665 115 in Australia, or 07/4657 1466).

Dino fans will also like The Australian Age of Dinosaurs (tel. 07/4657 0078; www.aaodl.com), a working dinosaur museum about 20 minutes drive from Winton. Access to the fossil preparation laboratory and dinosaur bone display is only available through guided tours, but you can also get your hands dirty actually helping prep the fossils if you book ahead. Tours are at 9 and 11am, 1 and 3pm, and cost A$22 adults, A$11 children aged 5 to 16, or A$50 families. Working on fossils for a day costs A$82.

Outback Queensland's other major dinosaur sites are in the towns of Richmond and Hughenden. If you're a real enthusiast and intend to follow the "Dinosaur Trail" -- you'll need about a week to do it -- it's worth buying a Dino Pass for A$20 adults or A$50 per family. To see some great outback country, start your drive in Longreach and finish in Townsville, with perhaps a diversion to Mount Isa. Stop in Richmond to visit the Kronosaurus Korner Marine Fossil Museum (tel. 07/4741 3429; www.kronosauruskorner.com.au) to discover an ancient time when this area was a great inland sea.

Finally on to Hughenden, the start of the great ancient inland sea. (Take a side trip to Porcupine Gorge National Park, a spectacular sandstone gorge about 63km/33 miles from town.) The Flinders Discovery Centre (tel. 07/4741 1021) in Hughenden includes a 7m (23-ft.) replica of the Muttaburrasaurus langdoni (named after the town of Muttaburra, where the remains were found close to the Thomson River in 1963).

The Australia's Dinosaur Trail website, www.australiasdinosaurtrail.com.au, has information on all these attractions.