Richmond

We drove to Richmond via Hughenden, marveling at how badly the road was constructed.  The surface of it was fine but it was almost constant small rises and dips all the way along, as though the road workers couldn’t be bothered smoothing the land out.  We had to slow right down after the tow hitch hit the bitumen a couple of times when the road unexpectedly dropped before us.  It was like bouncing up and down on gently rolling waves and when we were talking to a truckie over the UHF radio he actually said ‘I hope you brought your sea sickness tablets for this next section’. 

We stopped off in Hughenden for a snack and drink and found an awesome café called ‘FJ Holden’s’ which was full of Holden memorabilia as well as a cabinet full of Coke collectables.  The walls were covered in Elvis pictures and one section looked like it was straight out of Grease.  It was such an odd thing to find in a small town.

Awesome memorabilia in this small town cafe.

We drove through to Richmond (road still awful), planning to stop for longer in Hughenden on the way back through to the east coast.  The caravan park in Richmond had been recommended and it was lovely, sitting right next to a huge lake.  Unfortunately there was a huge storm overnight and we didn’t really get a chance to get down to the lake the next morning as it was still raining.

More dino bins.

Richmond is part of the Dinosaur Trail and is home to Kronosaurus Korner, another dinosaur exhibit with numerous fossils and bones on display.  Where Winton had sauropods and therapods, Richmond has the Kronosaurus, Minmi and Ichthyosaurus. 

Kronosaurus

Minmi

We were looking through the window of the lab and Jenny saw a lady she had met at the caravan park that morning.  Barb and her husband Gary are from Canada and they come over every year to volunteer at the museum, looking for fossils and classifying and reconstructing what they find.  They let us look at the lab and showed us some fossils that they were cleaning.  They also gave Ben a piece of Ichthyosaurus rib bone which is 110 million years old.  Later, as we looked through the museum we were amazed to see the number of fossils on display that Barb and Gary had found.  They are real dinosaur hunters and have contributed a huge amount to the museum.

Ben with the lovely Barb and Gary.

One of the most complete Pliosaur fossils in the world.

There are two fossil dig sites that you can visit to fossick yourself.  You need a permit but it is free and is really just a way for the museum to explain that anything significant needs to be brought back to them to examine.  The area is an old seabed and it’s almost impossible not to find something.  As soon as you turn over a rock you see shell fragments and minute fish bones.  There’s really no need to dig.  They have bulldozed huge areas and you can just turn over the rocks and sift through the dirt there.  We spent a couple of hours there and found Belemites (from ancient squids), lots of shells and some 110 million year old coprolite (dinosaur poo).    

Looking for fossils.

Stephen, AJ and Liam are a family we met at Kakadu and again in Alice Springs. They came to Richmond a few days before us.  Their son Liam had found a fish fossil and it looks to be a new species.  The museum have a photo of him up on the wall so we took a pic and sent it to him.