Winton, Hughenden and on to Richmond

The return journey from Winton to Hughenden again, was uneventful. Some 220 klms of undulating but mostly flat territory with the odd scattering of kangaroo road kill and not a lot of anything else. I must say though, that the Flinders Poppy, a nice pink flower, grows prolifically around Hughenden and is only found in this area. A refuel at Hughenden, a lunch stop at the nearby Lions driver reviver area and we were on our way to Richmond. More undulating, more flat, more uneventful.........

At Richmonds Kronosaurus Korner, our three place ticket admission got us into their dinosaur display as well. Well, when you think that you may have seen it all, another new chapter begins. Kron was a huge marine reptile that breathed air and was a terror in the sea. Their teeth were 30cm long and two thirds of that was embedded in their jaws, so the rest were used for biting, holding and ripping. Kron was bigger than  T-Rex and thats saying something. But wait theres more. Pliosaurs were also found in this area. Two brothers Ievers, found the beak of one while rounding up cattle, in a river bank.One bro kicked what he thought was a stick, which actually broke the snout off and upon further examination, they could see there were teeth in this piece of jaw. This has turned out to be the most complete skeleton of this type of dinosaur in the world. Since then about three others have been found in the area in various states of disrepair.The KK interpretive centre is also the tourist info and so we asked about directions to the local fossicking site. About 12 klms out of town, an open area on both sides of the road, well sign posted to indicate fossil digging area 1 and 2. After about 1/2 hour we returned to town with a piece of rock that I had split open with my trusty Geology pick and revealed what looked like a piece of petrified wood. back to KK for an opinion, and that disproved the wood theory in fact it was a fish bone, probably from the skull area of a fish that hasn't seen daylight in 110-115million years. A great day out. Plesiorsaurs and Ichthyosaurs were also in the area and it doesn't stop there. Research is well under way to find others in the area. The concept is a little difficult. Most of this area was a huge inland sea covered by about 40-50 metres of water, this eventually drained into the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Great Australian Bight revealing the dry seabed and great artesian water basin we now have.