Winton

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About Winton

Population: 954

Winton is the Dinosaur Capital of Australia, home of Waltzing Matilda and Queensland’s Boulder Opal; abundant in nature, culture and heritage.

“Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong…” You’ll be forgiven for relentlessly whistling this famous tune while you’re in Winton, as it’s the very home of Banjo Patterson’s ‘Waltzing Matilda’. Reputedly inspired by an 1894 shearer’s suicide at the nearby Combo Waterhole and first performed in Winton’s North Gregory Hotel on 6th April 1895, you can learn all about Banjo and the adopted national anthem at the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton.

Unofficial Australian anthems isn’t the only this that’s put Winton on the map; this is dinosaur territory. At the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, 24km south-east of Winton, you’ll see the world’s largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils, displayed in the Collection Room and prepared in the Dinosaur Laboratory. You can even sign-up to help prepare these real dinosaur bones in the laboratory.

Winton is also home to the world’s only recorded evidence of a dinosaur stampede – the Dinosaur Stampede at Lark Quarry Conservation Park. More than 95 million years old, there are 3,300 stampeding footprints immortalised in stone and protected 110km south-west of Winton. This is an iconic National Monument not to be missed.

The town is home to Boulder opals that you can view and buy in town and a day trip will take you to Queensland’s oldest opal fields at Opalton.

 

 

Where To Stay

North Gregory Hotel

Rangelands Outback Retreat

Experiences

Winton War Memorial

Residents of Winton met at the Shire Hall on Sunday 16 August 1914 to initiate a patriotic committee and to call on volunteers for the war that had been declared two weeks prior. 10 years later, the office of architects H W Atkinson and A H Conrad was

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Wintons Diamantina Heritage Truck and Machinery Museum

Bring the whole family along and take a nostalgic trip into transport history by visiting Winton’s Diamantina Heritage Truck and Machinery Museum. The museum features historic trucks, vehicles and machinery as well as photographic and transport memorabilia. It’s a fun and educational day out for the whole family

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Waltzing Matilda Centre

If there is one song that lives in the heart of all Australians, it is “Waltzing Matilda”… Welcome to the Waltzing Matilda Centre! Winton’s Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton, Outback Queensland tells the story of Waltzing Matilda, a song that lives in the hearts of all Australians as

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Corfield and Fitzmaurice Building

Inside the heritage listed Corfield and Fitzmaurice building awaits one of the nation’s most comprehensive displays of Australian Dinosaur fossils. Australian Age of Dinosaurs shows the results of the fossil fever that has gripped Winton since the first bones of ‘Elliot’ were found on a Winton property. ‘Elliot’

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Bladensburg National Park

Bladensburg National Park features Mitchell Grass Downs and Channel Country, including unique birdlife, plants and animals. It is home to a wonderful variety of wildlife, including tiny mammals called dunnarts. Impressive flat-topped plateaus and residual sandstone ranges provide a scenic backdrop to vast grassland plains and river flats,

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Australian Age of Dinosaurs

The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History is home to the world’s largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils. A working dinosaur museum with the most productive Fossil Preparation Laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s located on 1,800 hectares of spectacular mesa plateau with vast scenery, wildlife

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Red Dirt Tours

Red Dirt Tours is a locally owned and operated small business specialising in interpretive tours taking in the natural and historical environments in and around Winton. There are so many things to see in Winton and around the region – Dinosaurs, Waltzing Matilda, grazing, spectacular scenery – each

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The Royal Theatre Winton

The Royal Theatre Winton is an iconic open-air theatre built in 1918 and is just one of two open-air theatres still operating in Australia. With regular movie screenings, visitors can enjoy one of the world’s most unique cinematic and live performance venues under the Outback Queensland sky. Also,

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What To Do

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