Good evening from Winton, in the traditional lands of the Koa people, here in Central Western Queensland.

Yesterday we had a big drive up from Charleville, landing in Longreach in Iningai Country on the Tropic of Capricorn. Got halfway through the 2nd Harry Potter, as well as 3/4s of the way through the full score of Les Mis, which was pretty fun! I'm definitely imposing a 'Mum's driving = musical theatre" rule!!

We arrived in Longreach around 5, and while intellectually we knew it would get hotter the further north we drove, it was still pretty wild to head out to dinner in t-shirts in the middle of winter!

This morning we visited the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame. I must admit, I had reasonably low expectations, but was really pleasantly surprised at the content of the exhibition. It is primarily a really in-depth collection of oral histories, which made my little history undergad heart very happy. There was a large section at the very start about the invaluable contribution of Aboriginal men and women in the establishment of the pastoralist industry in this country, and included stories and voices of women, Aboriginal people and immigrants throughout the exhibitions. The kids really loved the treasure hunt, and honestly I could have spent a few more hours making sure I got to hear every story if I had the time!

We jumped back into Frankie, and drove 2 hours north west to Winton, where we'll be seeing some dinosaurs tomorrow. For right now I'm hanging out on a lovely little verandah off our family room, enjoying the breeze and bird song. We had a wander through town earlier and the kids were very excited to see that there's some opal mining in the region. They've been very psyched about the thought of opal mining since they heard all about the opals in Coober Pedy from Meg G, so were stoked to be able to do some fossicking for free! Bob and I were a little less stocked, until we heard the owner implement a three rock per child rule....