The town of Winton lies on a wide, flat, dry plain where you literally can see for miles and miles. It was founded in 1873 and has a number of claims to fame. It is the undisputed dinosaur capital of Australia with an excellent Age of Dinosaurs museum with life-size and very realistic creatures wandering, and research and preservation centres you can tour. More dinosaur bones have been found here than anywhere else in Australia. It also happens to be where Banjo Paterson penned the words to Australia’s most loved song, Waltzing Matilda. The Waltzing Matilda Centre in the main street will keep you occupied for a couple of hours. Winton was also the birthplace of QANTAS (despite Longreach’s counter-claims), and finally, it is a great base to explore Bladensburg National Park, with rivers, steams, what the locals call “jump ups”, and a wide variety of animals and birds. GH
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