Hikers Wool Blog

I happened to be thinking about all the footprints just one person makes on this earth - but rarely are any left to say we have been here. I was reminded then about the 100 million year old Dinosaur footprints.

A few years ago while travelling around Australia we were biding our time in Winton (west Queensland) for a few days, waiting for the Boulia Camel Races on the coming weekend. Winton is a fascinating outback town in the middle of (seemingly) nowhere and it was from here that we made a day trip even further into the outback to Lark Quarry to see the oldest footprints I have ever seen. They were 100 million year old Dinosaur footprints.

Lark Quarry is a protected area where they have uncovered the fossilised footprints of 3 kinds of Dinosaurs. The footprints tell the scene of a big flesh eating Carnosaur - measuring 2.5 metres at the hip - trapping a large group of two much smaller dinosaurs about the size of an emu (the Ornithopod) and an emu chick (the Coelurosaur) at the edge of a muddy lake. The Carnosaur attacked one of the smaller animals while the rest of the group fled in panic around the sides of him.

Because the edge of the muddy lake was dry enough to retain the tracks yet sufficiently damp not to crack, the footprints telling this story become fossilised and have now been uncovered 100 million years later. A realistic reminder of just how old the earth is.

If you are ever in this part of Australia, the site is well worth a visit and you will also be rewarded with some of the most awesome and remote outback scenery.