Aussirose Travel and Photography: Winton

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Winton is the home of quirkiness.

There is a quirky sign, a quirky fence, quirky wall and a quirky poet.

We really enjoyed our stay at Winton.

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WINTON ROADHOUSE CARAVAN PARK

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This would have to be hands down one of the best caravan parks that we have stayed in.

It is across the road from the Roadhouse and close to town. Our hosts were lovely, explaining all of the things to do in and around town and giving us information on them. Our hosts also lit the fire every afternoon at 5 for happy hour. I really enjoy staying at Caravan Parks that give a personal touch.

They also had a pool, dinosuaur sculpture, cool artwork on the office building and even different coloured glitter stickers underneath each toilet seat in the amenities. I alternated between the rose and butterfly ones.

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If you want to go for dinner at the North Gregory Hotel in town, which btw was awesome, ask the hosts here and they will arrange for the curtesy vehicle to pick you up from the Caravan Park and bring you home.

Every morning, the local fruit & veg guy came through ringing his bell. After tasting his home grown pickles, I bought a bottle.

Then there was the local bush poet Gregory North who performed every night at 7pm following a ringing of the bell. I grew up with poetry so I really enjoyed his renditions of well known Banjo Paterson & CJ Dennis poetry as well as his own poems and limericks.

He uses dress ups including hats and different voices to bring the poetry to life which results in lots of laughter. I bought his little limerick book. He has lots of merchandise and if you don't want to purchase anything, then a fiver in his money jar will go a long way to keeping this cool guy doing what he does the best. I will have fond memories of his performances and fond memories of Winton Roadhouse Caravan Park.

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WINTON MUSICAL FENCE

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The Muscial Fence is Australia's and the World's one and only musical fence.

I wouldn't say that it is a fence per se, but a bunch of quirky farm & tin stuff made into musical instruments. I had a play of course.

Located just a five minutes walk from the Roadhouse Caravan Park and behind the truck museum, it also shared the paddock with Arvo, a replica of the first plane flown by Qantas.

The actual Qantas Museum is located in neighbouring town Longreach, a couple of hours down the road.

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ARNO'S WALL

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Built by an eccentric German Arno, this strange wall is 2 metres high and 70 metres long and had literally everything, including the kitchen sink.

Say no more.

😏

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WALTZING MATILDA INFORMATION CENTRE

& STREETS OF WINTON

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Nice new building with Banjo Patterson statue outside and another one across the road.

We had a look around inside. It has all the basic gifts etc.

We didn't bother paying to check out the museum. With the cost of things these days, our budget doesn't allow for us to do everything. It costs around $40 to go in.

The main street in Winton had enough free stuff to keep us entertained instead.

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WINTON, OPAL COUNTRY

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Dotted along the main street of Winton were a few Opal Shops. Yes, not only is this dinosaur country, but it is opal country too. In fact, before we came into Winton, the countryside reminded me of Coober Pedy, the other opal country.

This shop had a humungous rock full of opal. The jewelry was real cool with interesting designs. Unfortunately too expensive for us. What we did do though was to check through the drums of rock with opal in near the front door. We each bought 3 rocks for $20. We have a rock tumbling machine and I might buy a mini hand held rock drill and have a go at extracting some opal and making jewelry.

Looking forward to that. Our new hobby, lapidary. Funny name hey.

😄

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WINTON HOTELS

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We visited 2 hotels in Winton.

This one is the Tattersalls. The other one was the North Gregory Hotel - same name as our Bush Poet, and yes, he performs there too.

The food was awesome at both. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos at the North Gregory as we went with a couple that we met at the Caravan Park. We had a lovely dinner and chat. Hubby and I shared a chicken snitty with yummy pepper gravey.

Also, we took advantage of the curtesy vehicle that picked us up from the Caravan Park and took us back.

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WINTON SUNSET SIGN

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Winton has a few signs that you can take advantage of the sunset. This classic one was located a couple of K's out of town.

The cool thing is that you can unlock the "I" and lay it down to stand there instead.

That was pretty cool.

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ROAD FROM HUGHENDEN TO WINTON

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The recent flooding was not good for the roads. This section of road between Hughenden and Winton was particularly bad. Not only did we feel like we were going up and down like a boat on choppy waves, but hubby had to navigate around big potholes and ruts to keep us safe and on the road. He did a great job.

As I said before, the landscape changed from flat unassuming country and as we drove closer towards Winton the scenery now included lovely colours in the hills and surrounded by green from the recent rain.