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.
The Dinosaur Trail
Queensland, June 2026
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2 Comments
Hi Chris & Jan. Great to see you back on the road! In terms of this trip, how much of what you saw did you know about before you left Cairns? i.e. were these things on an old bucket list, or were they new discoveries?
Winton and Longreach are iconic outback towns, and we knew about the Qantas museum and the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, both of which we wanted to see. But we didn’t know of the whole dinosaur trail until we started the planning for this trip. While the towns themselves were small and mostly unremarkable in themselves, the tourist attractions on this part of Queensland are absolutely world class. The story from our stay in Longreach is about to arrive, so we hope you like that one as well.