Day 5 of our road trip was jam-packed with dinosaurs! After a restful Day 4, we were up bright and early on Day 5 to make our way to Winton. When we booked our trip, we debated whether it was worth staying overnight in Winton, rather than making a drive from Longreach for the day. We struggled to find accommodation options for larger families in Winton, so, in the end, we opted to stay in our accommodation in Longreach (Saltbush Retreat – see the Day 4 review for more details) to save the time associated with checking out/checking in somewhere new, etc. We all headed off for Winton before 7 am to make it to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum by our booked session time of 9 am.
Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum
When we first started planning our Outback Queensland road trip, the main priority was to knock the ‘Dinosaur Trail’ off our family’s bucket list. From there, we expanded the trip to take in some extra sights, but the Day 5 trip to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum was really the heart and purpose of the whole trip.
Things have changed at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum over the past 12 months, with the ‘March of the Titanosaurs’ exhibition opening at Dinosaur Canyon. This new attraction allows visitors to see real dinosaur footprints which have been moved on to the museum’s site from elsewhere. When we visited, the only place to see dinosaur footprints was Lark Quarry, which is the site of the world’s only known record of a dinosaur stampede.
The newly-installed Titanosaur footprints give families a new range of ticketing options, but when we visited, there were just two options: Entry to the museum, including a guided tour of the Fossil Preparation Laboratory, a guided tour of the Collection Room and a guided tour of Dinosaur Canyon OR Entry to the museum with these inclusions PLUS a guided tour of the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument at Lark Quarry, which is a two-hour drive from the main museum near Winton. Our friends opted for the first option, and visited the Waltzing Matilda Museum in Winton in the afternoon of Day 5, while our family took the second option and headed out to Lark Quarry for the final stampede tour of the day.
Highlights at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum:
1) The Jump Up
For those who haven’t heard the term, a ‘jump up’ is similar to a mesa plateau – it is a flat, raised tableland with steep sides which rises above surrounding land. The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum sits along the edge of a jump up, giving the opportunity for some spectacular views. Near the carpark of the museum is a fenced area providing walking tracks and lookouts from which visitors can really appreciate the views from this amazing, natural platform.
2) Fossil Preparation Laboratory
Our children were absolutely mesmerised by the volunteers meticulously chipping away at large pieces of rock to reveal real dinosaur bones in the Fossil Preparation Laboratory. The walls of this shed are lined with wrapped and dated fossils to be explored at future dates, while glass cases in the area are filled with fossils already uncovered. The volunteers are definitely the highlight though. It is hard to believe that they sit with their tiny, precise drills, slowly chipping away at pieces of fossilised bone for hours on end. Most were happy to interact with the children and answer questions, making this an educational and eye-opening experience!
3) Collection Room
Up in the main museum building, the Collection Room houses some amazing, huge dinosaur fossils. They all have names. The most memorable to our family was ‘Banjo’ and we all remember the guide’s entertaining stories about the potential interactions between Banjo and another dinosaur named Matilda during their time walking the earth. We sat and enjoyed a short presentation in the Collection Room before taking a self-paced walk around, viewing all the fossils from behind a barrier.
4) Dinosaur Canyon
The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum has big plans for the Dinosaur Canyon, and they are already beginning to unfold. The tour starts with a trolley ride up to the top of the Canyon from the main museum building, which is an experience in itself. We saw emus on the ride and heard that there is often other wildlife to be seen as well. Upon arrival at the Canyon, the children received activity books and coloured pencils to use as we explored.
Technically, the Canyon runs down the side of the jump up. There is a path set out from the side of the jump up and between the wall of the jump up and the path, a ‘Canyon’ has been created. The museum has planted trees that would have been in existence during the time of the dinosaurs in the hope that the Canyon will fill with these trees and create an immersive experience for visitors. When we were there, we looked down into the Canyon from the path, but it wasn’t yet open to visitors (from memory, our guide said it would take a number of years to become fully established). The walk down the path at the Canyon is a fantastic experience in itself. Dinosaur sculptures have been set up along the way, and each one has an information panel. The information panels include a raised print that is unique to each display and the children can place the corresponding page of their activity book over the print, shade it with their pencil, and create an imprint of it in their books (similar to the way a coin rubbing works). We thought this level of interactivity for the children was a stroke of genius, keeping them engaged throughout and creating a resource they could take home as well!
At the end of the Canyon tour, we boarded the trolleys again to head back to the main museum.
5) Café and Gift Shop
The café at the museum is pretty standard, selling lots of pre-packaged food such as chips and biscuits (cookies), bottled drinks, tea and coffee. It was fine for morning tea, but we wouldn’t recommend it for lunch.
Our kids LOVED the gift shop at the museum. It is packed with both dinosaur-related and just general science-related souvenirs. We were able to get some pretty fun gifts to take home for family and friends as well – things like fossil cubes for the kids’ cousins, shovel-shaped teaspoons, badges and pins and even a t-shirt.
Following our morning at the main part of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, our friends headed off to explore more of Winton, while we headed off on the two-hour drive to Lark Quarry, with a quick stop in Winton on the way to get some lunch.
Lunch on the Go
We left the Age of Dinosaurs Museum just after midday, and we knew we would be racing the clock to get to Lark Quarry in time for our tour. We also knew that we were all hungry, and there was no way we could enjoy our afternoon without some food in our tummies. Here’s where we reveal one of our road trip hacks: We carry a cutting board in the vehicle so we can prepare food while driving. It’s so simple, yet something we only recently started doing. The board slips down beside the passenger seat so it’s secure while travelling, and then we can pull it out when needed.
A quick trip past the local grocery store in Winton and we were stocked up with bread rolls, a roast chicken, a bottle of soft drink, cups, serviettes and disposable knives. Then we made our roast chicken rolls while driving to Lark Quarry.
Lark Quarry: Dinosaur Stampede National Monument
We recently read that the road to Lark Quarry is going to be sealed, but it certainly was NOT when we made our trip! The first little bit of the two-hour drive is on sealed road, which then quickly gives way to a bone-jarring ride on gravel for almost the entire rest of the journey. We were in our Kia Carnival, which is not really designed for that sort of driving. I can tell you that we were all VERY relieved to reach our destination.
I was desperate for a coffee by the time we arrived at Lark Quarry, but unfortunately the café was closing up. They did let me have an instant coffee, but the café staff warned me that it would not be a good coffee because they were using limited equipment and I think they had run out of milk – and it was terrible. I don’t think this is a fair representation of what the café is like most of the time.
To start our booked experience, we got an introduction from a guide at the beginning of our tour. We watched a short video about the history of the monument and the history of the footprints. The monument has been through an interesting history on the path to creating the structure that stands around the stampede today.
The story of the dinosaur stampede itself is also really quite fascinating. Scientists think that a herd of small dinosaurs was at a waterhole, based on footprints going in one direction. Then, a larger predator arrived. The footprints scatter all over the mud flat around the waterhole heading away from the water, with the majority being small dinosaur prints. There is also a clear path made by one set of larger prints. Scientists believe that a unique set of circumstances then occurred whereby the mud flat was quickly covered in silt from rising water, effectively sealing in the footprints before they had time to be destroyed. All of the important parts of this story were pointed out by the guide while we observed the footprints with our own eyes. It was a very special experience and one worth the bumpy trip out to Lark Quarry.
As a side note, there is a recreation of the stampede of smaller dinosaurs in the Canyon at the main museum site as well (see the photo above from the Canyon). Seeing the footprints helped bring all of this together for our children.
The Drive Back to Longreach
Now, this drive is one that will forever be remembered by our family. It started off with a return trip on the bumpy Lark Quarry road. Not long into this drive - perhaps five minutes - a kangaroo jumped in our path and we had to make a fairly scary swerve to avoid it. We lived in a semi-rural area when our eldest daughters were born, and also send our children to a semi-rural school, so we are familiar with the worst times of day for encountering wildlife on the road. Our trip from Lark Quarry started at about 4 pm in the Queensland spring – heading right into dusk, a prime time for animals on the road. Our scare with a kangaroo made us more cautious, and we slowed our pace considerably to ensure we could react safely if needed.
We made the two-hour-ish drive back to Winton safely, had a quick pit stop, and began the drive back to Longreach. By this stage, it was almost dark. We kid you not, we must have encountered a kangaroo at least every 100 metres on the 180 kilometre stretch of highway. They weren’t always on the road, but often just off to the side, and at risk of getting spooked and jumping in front of us. FunDad described it as being like a computer game where you have to spot the enemy lurking on your path. He took a lookout on his side of the vehicle as well as driving, and I took a lookout on mine, with the kids also keeping their eyes peeled. It was a very tense couple of hours! On numerous occasions we had kangaroos jump in front of our vehicle, at times even jumping ahead of us as we followed slowly behind. Kangaroos have no road sense, and instead of jumping AWAY from traffic, will jump towards it in a panic. We knew that we would theoretically be driving at a dangerous time, but I don’t think we’d really prepared for the trip we had. When we finally hit the outskirts of Longreach, we all let out a massive sigh of relief!
There was a small roadside food van on one of the main streets in town, so we swung past and grabbed some burgers, chips and hotbox-style comfort food before making our way back to Saltbush Retreat, where we heard about our friends’ afternoon at the Waltzing Matilda Museum (they’d recommend it) and then we told them about our harrowing drive back!
All in all, Day 5 was jam-packed with experiences - educational, unique and even a little scary – all part of making memories as a family!
Day 5 Outback Queensland Family Road Trip Summary
Start:
Longreach
End:
Longreach
Driving:
Longreach – Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum
1 hr 55 mins (179 km)
Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum – Lark Quarry
1 hr 40 mins (136 km)
Lark Quarry – Longreach
3 hrs 15 mins (291 km)
(Took us longer in our ‘safe driving’ mode!)
TOTAL 6 hrs 50 mins (606 km)
Accommodation:
Saltbush Retreat, Longreach
Notable Stops:
Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, Winton
Dinosaur Stampede National Monument, Lark Quarry
Comments