4 July 2026
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| therapod track |
As Dawn breaks, I am under my outside shower looking up at the coconuts Palms and watching the sky change colour. I am ready for my morning tour pickup at 6:45 a.m.. Broome clearly works on a completely different time frame to the rest of the world, but I will concede that this one is tide dependant.
Dinosaur footprints are found in Broome Sandstone, approximately 140 million years old, when it is exposed along about 70 km of the coast.
Footprints are known a trace fossils - they are traces of where the animals have been, rather than remains of them.
Dianne, our guide, explained how the footprints fossilised and that sometimes they were found as casts - the solidified sediments that filled the footprint impression.
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| Sauropod footprint |
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| Sauropod cast back and front |
Sometimes a series of footprints showed where a dinosaur walked - a dinosaur trackway. Broome has the longest known dinosaur footway in the world.
Walking beside these fossilised footprints put a new meaning on 'walking with dinosaurs'
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| Dianne showing us the longest dinosaur trackway |
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sauropod trackway
Therapods came later than Sauropods, they were mainly carnivorous. Birds evolved from feathered theropod. |
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| 3 theropod tracks |
Therapod tracks were believed by the Aboriginals to be tracks of Emu Man - part of the creation/dreamtime stories.
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| eroded therapod track |
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| 3 therapod tracks |
Casts that sit proud of the surrounding sandstone are known as pedestals
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| 5 sauropod pedestals |
Dianne talked a little about the science of interpreting footprint dimensions to gauge the height and weight of the dinosaur.
The beach had a variety of interesting sandstone formations apart from the footprints, including some iron rich small sandstone pieces fused into a conglomerate layer on top of older sandstone
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| Iron rich sandstone (dark rocks) on top of an older layer |
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| A newer sandstone eroded differently to the layered erosion of the Broome sandstone |
Back at my accomodation a little after 8:30, I enjoyed morning tea and prepared for my day out in my hire car - awaiting its delivery.
Having collected my hire car, a small 4WD - a Suzuki Jimny, I headed for the bird Observatory.
Part of the route was on a pindan dirt road. It was a bit of an on-edge experience, especially when other vehicles approached or came up behind me. And I was told that the road is good at the moment! I was possibly the slowest on the road - most vehicles overtook immediately although a group of aboriginal boys in a 2WD sedan waited somewhat until the road was less soft and wider! I would have preferred they wait a little further from my rear bumper but... I contemplated pulling over but in those conditions I thought that momentum is my friend... Maybe I did encounter one slower driver - a sedan with an Asian driver near the start of the dirt road as I returned - he was also hogging the middle of the road despite my approach and another vehicle close behind.
At the observatory, I walked out to the observing platform by the bay and while it was a lovely view there wasn't much birdlife to be seen. A Brahminy kite flew over, a couple of seagulls lingered on the shore and a sea eagle soaring overhead had me puzzled because it was hiding its primary flight feathers.
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| the view from the observing platform |
I continued my walk and heard a few little birds in the bush but did not see much of them. It was the middle of the day and very hot. I used my umbrella as a sunshade.
A little time in the air conditioned information building cooled me down a little, and I proceeded to the shade house - which seems to be the camp kitchen for the campground. The appeal of this was not only the shade but also the bird baths outside.
I sat and watched for quite some time, eventually getting out my binoculars for a better look and thus managed to identify double barred finches - very attractive with their 2 black lines across their chest and their owl like black markings on their face. I also identified brown honeyeaters. And another person present identified a pair of larger birds as bowerbirds. There were many more. No photos as that would have been a pointless effort with the gear I have available.
A couple of Agile Wallaby came to drink - first a small female, then a large male - at which point the smaller female moved away.
While watching the birds, as well as while walking, I had spotted some lovely yellow butterflies but they were not hanging around long enough to get a good look, let alone a photograph.
The return trip on the pindan dirt road was much the same - and I was most relieved to reach the paved road. I have driven on many unpaved roads before, but this, in my baby 4WD, was the most challenging!
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| pindan dirt road - not much fun for me! |
I contemplated a trip to Coconut Wells to see the rock pools but will need to do that early morning when the tide is low - I am certainly not doing it after dark this evening!
I did indulge in another dip in Felicity's pool and felt delightfully cool for a brief time. It has been 32 degrees today - and in the sun positively scorching!
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