Isisford, In the Middle of Everywhere

We're ambling our way through Central Queensland en route to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum near Winton.  We love this part of the country with its red dirt and rivers.  Unfortunately there hasn't been much rain over the past few years so it's very dry and many properties have destocked.  From Charleville we continued north along the  Mitchell Highway and  joined the Landsborough Highway a few kms south of Augathella, home of the Mighty Meat Ants rugby team.







We free camped about 40kms south of Blackall on the banks of the almost dry Barcoo River.  The road north was a dodgem track with roadkill - mostly kangaroos, some emus and the occasional pig littered the road.

On to Blackall, birthplace of the Queensland union movement, where the Queensland Shearers Union was formed to fight the pastoralists directives as a result of the lowering of the shearing rate in 1886.  (Nearby Barcaldine is the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party).  A pyramid in the centre of town tells the story of Blackall's union and political history.

About 120km from Blackall we were in Isisford.  We last camped here at nearby Oma Waterholes in November 2012 when we were still novice caravanners.  This time we're staying close to town at the Barcoo Weir camping area.  We're only a few metres from the Barcoo River.  We've managed to catch enough red-claw for a meal of red-claw laksa and we're enjoying the tranquility and birdsongs.


Isisford is In the Middle of Everywhere and it's claim to fame is the discovery of a number of unique fossils which are on display in the small museum.  The pipe along the roof of the museum is painted to represent the water python which, according to the local dreamtime story, formed the river.





The Isisfordia duncanii is the oldest of earth's crocodiles, living 90-95 million years ago.  Only about 1m long, it was a lot smaller than today's salties which reach 6.5m.  



Also on display is a fossil of the Isisford Tarpon, a fish which lived about 150million years ago.  This fossil, found in the 1990s, was about 1.2m long although they are known to have grown up to 2.5m long.  The bulldog fish fossil was found in 2005 and a 3D life sized model was created for display.



Our 5 days here have been very relaxing and tomorrow we're off to the regional centre of Longreach, about 100km away.