It was a short drive to Winton so we left after going to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and having lunch in Longreach (we went to Darcy’s Diner, which was a great choice).

We drove into Winton which was I realised that I’d assumed Longreach and Winton were similar sizes but I was wrong on that one. I probably should have bought more snack foods in Longreach for the kids but they had an okay selection in Winton, just very expensive.

The trip dates were planned around Winton because it was the hardest to find accommodation in. We stayed at the Winton Roadhouse in cabins. We ended up being out there for the Winton Outback Festival.

Our friends had pre warned us that the water in Winton was smelly, so we had some bottled water with us. The cabin had a sign up about it and it said the water was safe to drink but smelly and the boiled water would lose its smell. It was a bit like showering in a boiled egg smell but mostly only an issue when I’d rinse my mouth out with water after cleaning my teeth and did this with tap water before remember too late that it was smelly.

We came out to Winton for the dinosaur museum – the Australian Age of Dinosaurs. With your ticket you get a tour of the museum, the fossil preparation lab, the March of the Titanosaurs exhibition. The fossil preparation lab was the most interesting to see, how much fossils they have waiting to be processed. They run a lot on volunteer labour.

The museum collection tour showed a video including some history of the museum, and told us about ‘Banjo’ and the other specimens they have found out near Winton.

We also did the Titanosaurs exhibition which was foot prints discovered on a farm and moved to the site which I think will become the future site of the museum (for now you ride a golf buggy shuttle between the two). There was a really interesting tour with this one although it was getting hot and kids attention was flagging, so we also enjoyed being inside in the cooler air.

We visited the Musical Fence which was fun and interesting, although band aids were needed with one kiddo cutting his hand on something, and took sunset photos.

On Saturday (our second full day there) we watched the festival parade, saw some truck reversing competitions, admired old trucks and did some general wandering around.

There was a pool at the Roadhouse where we were staying but we also decided on a trip to the Winton Pool which all the kids highly rated. It had a water park with slides, a nice non smelly water pool and shady grassed areas. It was also really inexpensive to get into (compared with Brisbane pricing).

We finished off the visit with a trip to the Waltzing Matilda Centre. It was at this point we realised the kids had no idea what Waltzing Matilda was so we then had a brief crash course on Banjo Paterson, poetry and the poem itself. This is a poem about a dead guy?? Well I guess…

Anyway trauma about learning about a swagman unaliving himself in a billabong aside, the centre was really good with info about outback life, culture, movies filmed and an outside section with old trains, and buildings to walk through.

This was one of our last photos we took in Winton, stopping at the sign on our way out of town heading to Ilfracombe.