Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum ... not

[Lanthanotus]

If anyone wondered about my three months absence on the forums (if not that's also okay  ), we've been travelling Australia for a second time. With some foreknowledge of the places we would visit again (and some we would not), we planned a route in advance and I included a trip to Winton, hometown of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, an instutution that earned some fame amongst the DTF community for releasing their Austrlovenator "Banjo" just a few months back. While I was astonished about the hefty entry fee for the museum when I looked it up on the internet (33 AU$) and despite knowing that Banjo aswell as most other fossils/species from the region are just known from scant remains, I was keen to go there and have a look, not least to pick up a seond Banjo figure in person (and to have one spare to customize).

For those of you who had a look to an Australian map once, Winton is in the middle of nowhere, literally. Well, sure there's a so called "highway" (which is a simple two lane bitumen road at least when you arrive from east, if you go further west or come from there, it's effectively a one lane bitumen road with massive potholes and two way traffic), but you can drive hours without seeing a single soul. And you have to drive hours, it's 2000km from Sydney and another 2000 to Darwin. Nevertheless, we wanted to "go around the corner" as the Australians say and as we did the northern route via Richmond (home of the Kronosaurus) the last time, Winton was it. Hours and hours and hundreds of kilometeres passing wehat fields we arrived Winton on the 26th of December, main school holiday season in Australia. But while you might think that this may be a good time to open a dinosaur museum, staff apperantly deceided different. Well, we "knew" they would be closed for Boxing Day and the 1st of January, at least ois way stated like this in their brochures and in the posters at the local tourist office....

... what we found when entering the gravel road to the museum some few kilometeres out of the twon (well, actually the 1st kilometer or so is paved now) was a sign saying, they would re-open on 4th of January and I was like "NOOOOOO!!!!" and "WHY?!". Swallowing my anger and disappointment I thought, "well, let's just go and see "Banjo" then, lifesize (they got a statue just like the figure in front of the museum), that's a poor substitute, but anyway....

... and then we found the gates barred. Wouldn't have been a problem to just get out and walk the remaining half kilometer or so, even with the scorching heat, but when I saw that barred gate I thought "Fnck you AAoD! You don't want me here? So be it!"

So, to sum it up, I unfortunetly can show you only some somewhat disappointing pics of signposts and poor dinosaur replicas from our campsite - at least when it comes to prehistoric reptiles. All in all, despite the AAoD Winton was a nice stop on our trip and even had some modern reptile life to offer, may show you some more later, aswell as some other prehistoric content we found along our way

Muttaburra was no option unfortunatly, as it would have ment hundreds of kilometeres return way with our two wheel drive and despite the skies looking friendly in the pic, we had maissve rain and thunderstorms that caused impassable and closed roads all around us.


We visited Richmond's Kronosaurus Corner in 2012, will show you some pics later in this thread.




Isn't it remarkble how, despite all inaccuracies a T. rex is always recognizable instantly. I mean okay, for a statue on a campsite, it's quite well made, even outdated by decades.


That can't be said for this abominable wind "chime", creative idea however, made from steel frames and fabric with a concrete block as counterweight


Steep gravel road to the museum, watch out for dragon lizards and other wildlife.


Barred gates to keep out patrons.


Yeah, exactly! :/

[suspsy]

That sucks, mate. Sorry you had to be disappointed like that.🙁

[Derek.McManus]

That was a long trip to be disappointed like that...I feel sorry for you! It's easy to forget just how large Australia is and the photos where interesting to look at!

[postsaurischian]

  Oh, that's too bad. I was luckier in 2015. At least you have been to Richmond's
Kronosaurus Corner which is the most spectacular place to visit on the Dinosaur Trail I guess.
We didn't make it there because of too much driving. You also want to relax during holiday .

We already have a similar thread. Maybe a moderator can merge the two?
http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=2867.msg79046#msg79046

[Lanthanotus]

[...]

We already have a similar thread. Maybe a moderator can merge the two?
[...]

Ah, didn't know about this thread, well, it's was way before I joined here.

Well, the driving didn't bother me, in fact, we choosed car for our means of travelling for the second time because it allows us to stop whereever we want to - and we did that a lot, mainly for wildlife, but also for landscape photography. More than 13k this time, the last time we made 23k in three months, yes, Australia is huuuge.

I got told by locals that the AAoD would also plan major improvements for their exhibition with animated dinosaurs and such, but I can't say how much of this is true or will happen. What I saw from other places, better to say advertisements (Canberra National Museum of Dinosaurs), they're better of without that mumbo-jumbo.

[Lanthanotus]

As we are at it....

here's the pics we made in Richmond, 2012. Back then the enthusiasm for dinosaurs or prehistoric wildlife wasn't sparked yet again, but we visited the museum anyway out of interest and to "kill some time". Can't tell you anything specific about the exhibition.

Lifesize replica of the name giving Kronosaurus, found in the vicinity of Richmond, Queensland (in Australian terms that means somewhere in a circle of 100km around the place)


Minmi statue, the fossils are also "local" somewhat, found in Queensland town Roma, a bare 1200 km southeast.

[Halichoeres]

What a frustrating story, I'm sorry to hear that! I had a similar experience two years ago, when I was in Santos, Brazil for a conference, and the one day I set aside that I could skip the conference proceedings, all the museums and the aquarium were closed. It will probably be a long time before I am back in Brazil, but at least it isn't so very remote as Winton, as Santos is only 70 km from São Paulo.

Nice photos from Kronosaurus Korner, at any rate--thanks for sharing!

[BlueKrono]

Lanthanotus - Do you know what kind of plesiosaur that is in the Kronosaurus Museum - the hanging one?

[Derek.McManus]

The pictures from Richmond are fantastic that looks like an interesting place! 😀

[Brontozaurus]

Lanthanotus - Do you know what kind of plesiosaur that is in the Kronosaurus Museum - the hanging one?

IIRC from my visit 5 years ago it's either Eromangasaurus or Woolungasaurus.

Sorry to hear your visit didn't go to plan! Things here tend to shut down over Christmas and New Year cause that's our summer holidays. And as for Winton, summer is stinking hot and the tourists usually go elsewhere. Middle of the year is the best time to go there generally.

Also if you do come back (please do!), you gotta check out the town of Hughenden as well as AAoD, Kronosaurus Korner and the Winton trackways. Hughenden has a nice fossil display, a lifesize Muttaburrasaurus in the centre of town, and scrapmetal pterosaurs perching on a few buildings. It makes a good stopoff on the way to and from Richmond.

[Lanthanotus]

Lanthanotus - Do you know what kind of plesiosaur that is in the Kronosaurus Museum - the hanging one?

IIRC from my visit 5 years ago it's either Eromangasaurus or Woolungasaurus.

Thanks, Brontozaurus, I could by no means name them anymore

We came through Hughenden four years ago, but we must have missed that Dinosaur models there somehow. I intend to go back to Australia, but I guess it may depend on our means of transportation, if we go through central Queensland again an this route, I would rather prefer a 4WD and go right through instead of highway touring once more.
Yeah, well, Australian summer temperatures may be hard to endure, but they mean there's lots of reptiles .... and less tourists....

Winton is so "wild west", that goannas cross the streets in CBD


Dragon perching on the rocks to AAoD