Winton

History

The traditional owners of the Winton area, the Koa people, consider Bladensburg National Park area (near Winton) to be a special part of their traditional country, and the park is also important to the Maiawali and Karuwali people. Jirandali (also known as Yirandali, Warungu, Yirandhali) is an Australian Aboriginal language of North-West Queensland, particularly the Hughenden area. The language region includes the local government area of the Shire of Flinders, including Dutton River, Flinders River, Mount Sturgeon, Caledonia, Richmond, Corfield, Winton, Torrens, Tower Hill, Landsborough Creek, Lammermoor Station, Hughenden, and Tangorin. Skull Hole, on Surprise Creek, at Bladensburg Station about from Winton, was the site of a massacre of Aboriginal people in 1877. The Koa people have lodged an application to the Federal Court of Australia to have their native title legally recognised. This application (or "claim") was registered on 28 September 2015, by the National Native Title Tribunal. On 6 October 2021 the Federal Court recognised the Koa people as native title holders of land and waters covering 31,400 square kilometres. In one of Australia's greatest mysteries, the Prussian explorer Ludwig Leichhardt set off on an expedition with a group of men and animals from the Condamine River in the Darling Downs, bound for the Swan River Colony across the continent. He was last seen on 3 April 1848 at McPherson's Station, Coogoon, still on the Darling Downs. His whereabouts thereafter have never been known, but he and his men are believed to have met their end in the Great Sandy Desert. This expedition may have brought Leichhardt near Winton's future site. William Landsborough undertook extensive exploration of both the Western and Diamantina rivers in the 1860s,…

Geography

Winton lies on the north bank of the Western River, a braided river that often runs dry, made of many small channels, a landform that gives this region, the Channel Country, its name. The Western is joined from the north by Jessamine Creek and Mill's Creek, both braided streams. Mistake Creek, likewise a braided stream, empties into the Western from the south. The Western itself flows westwards, eventually emptying into the Diamantina River at one of only three major confluences on that river. This lies some 60 km downstream. This puts Winton in the Lake Eyre basin. The land in the area is mostly flat grassland, which lends itself rather well to pastoral activity, an industry of some local importance to this day. Winton lies at the junction of the Kennedy Developmental Road and the Landsborough Highway, the two of which run concurrently from Winton's south end as far as another junction a few kilometres west of town. The Diamantina River's hook-shaped upper reaches have drawn scientific attention. In March 2015, Geoscience Australia reported that the river's course at and near its headwaters flows along the edge of a roughly circular crustal anomaly that might well be an impact structure. It is an area, as described by Richard Blewett, a senior official with Geoscience Australia, in diameter, characterized by geomagnetic anomalies, and Winton lies roughly 60 km beyond its eastern edge. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that recent seismic studies undertaken there indicated that long ago an asteroid or comet struck the area releasing energy equivalent to 650 million Hiroshima A-bombs (and thus roughly 41 zettajoules). The area surrounding the town has yielded a number of dinosaur fossils. In 2009, the discoveries near the town of three Early Cretaceous…

Most-observed species

• Willie-wagtail

  Rhipidura leucophrys (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  742
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  725
• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  725
• Crested Pigeon

  Ocyphaps lophotes (Temminck, 1822) · Aves
  682
• White-plumed Honeyeater

  Ptilotula penicillata (Gould, 1837) · Aves
  682
• Zebra Finch

  Taeniopygia guttata (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  665
• Galah

  Eolophus roseicapilla (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  628
• Black-faced Woodswallow

  Artamus cinereus Vieillot, 1817 · Aves
  472