July 21: Hughenden Has What?

When plotting my route east to the Great Barrier Reef, Hughenden, a rural outpost of just over 1,000 people, just looked like a tiny speck on my map. Little did I know it is home to some of the world’s best preserved dinosaur fossils, not to mention a lot of small-town charm.

Pulling into the village yesterday, my eye was immediately captivated by a large windmill on the Flinders Riverbank rotating gracefully in the afternoon wind. Apparently, this beauty, constructed out of ferrous metal, was one of only fifteen ever made, measures 35 feet across, and used to provide over 220,000 gallons of water a day to livestock in the area. Stunning!

The town has quite a thriving art scene, celebrating both its palaeontologic past as well as its aboriginal culture. A large 22-meter metal sculpture of a female rainbow serpent on the riverbank is a symbol from the narratives told by the indigenous people to explain the creation of the world and its inhabitants.

Huge dinosaur statues are placed strategically throughout the city streets, and a local museum has a life – sized replica of a muttaburrasaurus dinosaur whose bones were discovered well preserved in the sedimentary rock nearby in 1963. A water tower just a few blocks away has a colorful life-like mural of a small boy playing with a toy dinosaur and the town hosts an annual dinosaur festival.

Riding east towards the coast today, the landscape became hillier, with beautiful blue mountains to the south, framed by bright green gassy farmland in the foreground. Crossing the Burdekin River just past Charters Towers, I could see velvety silver blue waters rippling past rocky outcroppings, a far cry from the mostly dry red sandy riverbanks I have been passing the last several weeks.

On the coast at a motorcycle dealership in Townsville, I had Adventure Baby’s chain tightened and was super happy to hear from the head mechanic that he believes my tires will most likely last until I finish my lap. What a great day on the bike!