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| Birdlife Lake Fred Tritton Richmond Queensland |
The
real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having
new eyes.
Marcel Proust Each time I stop in Richmond I promise myself that once
a. I
have more time, or
b. a better car, or
c. the weather cools
down
I’ll do the tourist thing and go fossil
hunting in this area.
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| Kronosaurus Korner Richmond Queensland |
In the meantime as it
seems to be my luck to travel the Flinders Highway during periods of high heat,
often in the early 40s, a break at Kronosaurus Korner is always a treat. It has a fossil museum, a gift shop, and a
café that employs a brilliant pastry chef.
This is the best café between Townsville and Mt Isa, with Cloncurry coming
a reasonable second.
Like so many Queensland
towns Richmond has had a chequered history.
Its main income has been from sheep and cattle grazing. But today it is not sheep and cattle that
visitors come to see.
In the late 1870s
Richmond Downs, named after the Richmond River in New South Wales, was taken up
as a pastoral lease. During this time
the Queensland gold rush was on and gold was discovered at Woolgar just north
of Richmond Downs. Coaches carrying
miners to the gold fields stopped where the road met the Flinders River, near
the station. In 1882 a township was surveyed
at the coach stopover. The town was named
after Richmond Downs.
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| Lake Fred Tritton Richmond Queensland |
During the cretaceous
era an inland sea covered this region.
The first major dinosaur fossil discovery (of Kronosaurus queenslandicus) was
made in 1929. After the 1989
announcement that the 100-million year old remains of a pliosaur had been found
on a nearby pastoral station interest in this area increased and a viable
tourism industry was established.
Six years later
‘Kronosaurus Korner’ was set up as a fossil museum and has since expanded to
include not only the café and gift shop but also research facilities. Two major
recent finds of dinosaur fossils have enhanced the town’s reputation as a
centre for fossil hunting and research.
Fossil tourism has changed
the face and fortune of this town and slowed the population decline that has
afflicted so many Western towns, especially during the recent drought.
There is shaded parking
in the centre of the street outside the café - a bonus for the traveller with a
dodgy car air conditioner and an aged dog as the occasional travelling
companion.
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| Shaded Picnic Table & BBQ Lake Fred Tritton Richmond |
If I arrive in Richmond
early morning (on my way East) or late afternoon (heading West) the shores of
man-made Lake Fred Tritton on the
Eastern edge of town is a great spot to stop for a picnic. Any other time of day at this time of year and
the lack of shade for vehicles turns the car into a heat death trap. The picnic tables on the lake shore are
covered against sun and rain and the birdlife is wonderful to watch while
relaxing in the cooling breeze off the water.
Black winged stilts and black fronted dotterels were breeding on the
edges of the lake the last time I stopped there.
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| Roadsign Richmond Queensland |
Richmond also has the
best road signs I’ve ever seen. It’s almost worth the 500k trip from
Townsville just to be astounded, then enthralled by them as you manoeuvre over
the road ridges caused by the black soil base on this section of highway. This said, the traveller is warned well in
advance of the rough surface and if the recommended speeds are abided by then
the trip is pleasant and quite smooth.
When you visit the
museum, have refreshments at the café and order the homemade apple turnovers –
the best I’ve tasted – ever.
Claire Wood
Email: longline8@gmail.com
For more information on
Richmond go to:
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