Richmond

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Staying in the caravan park overflow area located at the Richmond Racecourse. It is a couple of kms out of the town, but extremely quiet with the added benefits of power and water and a very modern amenities block. Despite being called a Turf Club the only turf was in front of the grandstand – the track itself was all dirt and dust.



On the wall of the Moonrock Café (within the Tourist Info Centre) there hangs a painting of 4 local men (Bunny Walsh, Ken Ryan, Tom Wilcox and Jimmy McGuire). It is titled “The Seat of Knowledge” as all four gentlemen would sit there every day, watching the world go by and offering advice to one and all. It is of no real significance – just one of those images that appealed.



Richmond is one town of 3 on the Dinosaur Trail here in North West Queensland (Winton and Hughenden being the other two). The region was once covered by the Eromanga Sea and in recent years many specimens have been unearthed that support its claim to be a premier marine fossil site. At the Kronosaurus museum we learned of when Richmond first came to prominence in 1989 when a 100-million year old Pilosaur fossil was discovered close to the town. A video in their theatrette allowed us to step back in time to when half of Australia was under water and carnivorous creatures dominated life below the surface. As we looked at the fin bones of a polycotylid we couldn’t help but smile and remember the children’s game of “jacks” because the shape of both was the same, although I daresay the weight of our plastic bones was far less than the real thing.



We wandered through a replica of the Cambridge Downs homestead which today houses a small museum of tools and equipment of yesteryear. The original homestead was built in the 1860’s from flagstones and erected in the open away from dense bushland so as not to be easily breached by marauding aborigines. It was interesting to see the iron barred windows, offering further defence to the inhabitants. The original homestead would have had a thatched roof but today’s replica has been topped with raised galvanised iron sheets offering a lovely breeze.



There is a lovely 1.5km walk around Fred Tritton Lake. Constructed in 2003 as a recreational feature for Richmond, it is named for a former Mayor of the Richmond Shire. In the middle of the lake there is “Deadman’s Island” commemorating a man called “Fitzgerald” – he apparently was thrown from his horse and was buried where he fell. When the lake was excavated they built a stone cairn over his grave so that he would not be forgotten.



Scattered around the lake there are several specimens of moon rocks. Not sure why they are called that – possibly because of their cratered appearance - but they were interesting to look at with many coloured hues of limestone.



The parkland around the lake has a great waterpark for little kids …… and big kids. It was cold, but refreshing in the warm sunshine!

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