We are travelling again, this time on a road trip from Cairns to

Melbourne and back again.

The first part of our journey was to the Flinders Region of outback

Queensland. Tens of millions of years ago the area was a large,

shallow sea with a multitude of islands forming an archipelago and

hundreds of kilometres of sandy shores. The land rose and the sea drained away. What is left are the vast flat grazing properties that were once the sea bed, and hills, ranges, and jump-ups that were once parts of the archipelago. The soils in the region have special properties that have led to the discovery of fossilised remains of the creatures that swam in the sea and roamed the land.

The area around Hughenden, Richmond, and Winton has a rich history of pioneer grazing, and is also a major centre for palaeontology

research. The latter has created a big tourist industry around the

fossils of prehistoric creatures.

Click on the photo to the right to read the story of our travels there, and

see how the the land works to bring the fossils to light, and see how

histories of the graziers and the fossil hunters are connected.