Day 66 Sunday August 10th 2014 Winton
The Winton Hotel is the oldest in town and there are saddles hanging above the bar. From pack horse saddles to racing saddles. The bright yellow Australian Hotel is cheery with tables on the footpath dressed in 50’s plastic tablecloths. The Tattersall’s hotel is your true outback pub, lots of jock hanging from the walls, flags on the ceiling and a purple haired bar maid ‘’what’ll it be gorgeous?” She asks.
The Winton water supply is pumped up from the Great Artesian Basin by four big pumps and then cooled before distribution. The water is clean and good but it does give off a gas as it comes from the tap. The aroma quickly disperses but when you are under the shower one need only close one’s eyes to invoke memories of Rotorua.
I think someone has stolen the clouds. We haven’t seen a cloud in days and the land is so flat as to almost curve on the horizon. It even feels flat. If that’s possible. There are little dips in the road for dusty dry creek beds to flow over, one day. The houses sit about a foot above the ground for air flow and everyone lives in tins. The houses are built with metal cladding or corrugated iron even the motels. Temporary housing is in dongas and the van park amenities are metal portables. Even the new library is corrugated iron. Of course, our caravans too are mostly aluminium.
A little art doesn’t go astray in the outback as it softens the harsh landscape. In Mt Isa there are beautiful murals on corrugated iron sheets at the rodeo park. Here in Winton the van park doors have outback scenes painted on them. In the streets there are desert garden plantings instead of lawn nature strips.
While photographing the moonrise I watch spellbound as two brolgas dance in the paddock.
Dongas = Container like accommodation as is used on mining sites.
Towing Kms: 0
itchingforhitching 
Hi there,
We did our 4WD Dinosaur Tour via Winton, Richmond and Hughenden 2 years ago and it was awesome. My daughter really loved it. We actually free camped at the river bank 2 km from Winton and it was great too. No people.
In regards to Brolgas, we saw hundreds of them in Karumba when we traveled around Australia. They are really majestic, beautiful birds.
We are just composing our posts in the blog here if you want to have a look: https://www.travelspicedlife.com/
Travel safe,
Marius
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Hi Marius, it is a fascinating area. The long waterhole was really busy when we were there, how lucky you were to have it to yourselves. Gosh there must be a lot of dinosaur bones in that region. I’ll check out your site.
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Indeed, when we visited Australian Age of Dinosaurs they said occasionally group of your scientists come from universities and stay for few weeks and dig for more bones. And they find more. This way we can discover more types of dinos.
Cheers,
Marius
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A window into the past and so much to learn.
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How wonderful to see those brolgas dancing. I’ve only seen that on TV.
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A real surprise as I’d only wandered out the back of the park to get a shot of the moonrise.
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The photo of the moon over the town touched me. It’s not a “scenic” landscape but is somehow brightened by the moon, almost hanging from a wire.
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Thanks Ruth, yes it does sort of give the feel of a country town.
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I stayed in my van at the back of Winton Hotel in 2019 for their Film Festival and the meals were huge and scrumptious.
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We haven’t eaten at the Winton….yet.
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