Jetsettersblog

Think big when it comes to Queensland and dinosaurs – after all, it’s home to spectacular dinosaur footprints, large fossil marsupial sites and dinosaur remains, great dinosaur digs and expansive fossil collections.

You’ll find some of the world’s most amazing fossils in the Queensland Outback and they are still being unearthed. One hundred million years ago this part of the world lay under inland seas filled with marine reptiles, and prehistoric creatures roamed the shoreline.

Exploring this history is made easy with Australia’s Dinosaur Trail (http://www.australiasdinosaurtrail.com  a drive taking in the towns of Winton, Hughenden and Richmond and their surrounds. Follow the trail and unearth incredible displays and fossil collections including footprints from a stampede, dig up the past at public fossicking sites or join an organised fossil dig.

The Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways are located 110km from Winton and are the world’s only recorded evidence of a dinosaur stampede which took place approximately 95 million years ago.

The footprints tell the story of a large herd of small, two legged dinosaurs who gathered on the banks of a forest lake to drink. They were stalked by a large theropod and panicked, stampeding across the muddy flats to escape.

The record of their stampede is cast in more than 3,300 fossilised footprints which are now conserved in an ecologically, sustainably-designed building in Lark Quarry Conservation Park. Regular tours to the site bring to life the dinosaurs whose footprints remain etched in the rock. www.dinosaurtrackways.com.au

There is more dinosaur history in Winton at the Corfield and Fitzmaurice Building where the skeletal remains of “Elliot”, Australia’s largest known dinosaur are displayed.

He was discovered on a Winton sheep station in September, 1999. Other fossils and a dinosaur diorama recounting the stampede at Lark Quarry are also on display.

On the road out of Winton to Longreach the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum (AAOD) is coming to life at the Jump Up. Stage One of this Museum of Natural History, a new fossil preparation facility and staff accommodation, will open in June. AAOD has been involved in the discovery, recovery and conservation of dinosaur fossils from Western Queensland and the existing dinosaur fossil preparation facility has operated at Belmont Station since 2006. The museum is expected to be completed and operational by 2013. www.australianageofdinosaurs.com

Around 200km north is Hughenden, home to the towering statue of “Mutt” the Muttaburrasaurus.

This is the place for fossickers as there are a number of designated fossicking areas close to the town where it is possible to unearth the remains of shells and prehistoric creatures. The layers of sediment and rock formations in nearby Porcupine Gorge tell the stories of the different eras throughout time.

Complete the Dinosaur Trail and head 112km west on the Overlander’s Way to Kronosaurus Korner in Richmond.

This centre displays local fossils from the inland sea that covered a large section of Queensland 120 million years ago and of which Richmond was the geographical centre.

The centre contains more than 200 individual exhibits including “Minmi”, a 100 million year old armoured dinosaur with impressions of its fossilized skin, and the “Richmond Pliosaur”, Australia’s best vertebrate fossil.

Guests can watch the resident curator at work preparing new-found fossils for display.

Information and mud maps are available at the centre showing free designated fossicking sites for those keen to make their own discoveries which can then be brought back to the curator for identification.

www.kronosauruskorner.com.au

Another popular dinosaur encounter is the World Heritage-listed Riversleigh Fossil Fields in Boodjamulla National Park in north-west Queensland are among the richest and most extensive in the world, with some fossils dating back 15 to 25 million years. The site provides exceptional examples of the first records of many groups of living mammals including marsupial moles and feather-tailed possums as well as for extinct species like the ‘marsupial lion’.

The area open to the public was one of the first fossil deposits found in Mount Isa. Visitors who can’t get to the actual fields can also come face-to-face with the prehistoric inhabitants of Outback Australia through video displays, dioramas and scientific displays at the Riversleigh Fossil Centre at the Outback at Isa complex. Guided tours of the laboratory show the resident paleontologist and trained staff freeing fossil bones of extinct creatures from limestone. www.outbackatisa.com.au

Dinosaur enthusiasts can also assist the Queensland Museum Geosciences with their research by applying for a position as an honorary technical assistant. Projects can include working with the collection and preparing/sorting fossils and joining palaeontologists on dinosaur digs. www.qm.qld.gov.au/features/dinosaurs/volunteer/index.asp

Younger dinosaur fans should explore the Energex Playasaurus Place at the Queensland Museum where the much loved, life-sized dinosaur statues of a T-Rex and a Triceratops now take pride of place. Entry is free and the space is packed with interactive activities. Visitors can trace the story of energy throughout the ages from the time when dinosaurs ruled the earth, check out x-ray images of the baby dinosaurs in the eggs in the nest protected by the triceratops, learn how the famous T-Rex replica came to live at the museum and compare the size of a human foot with the footprints left by dinosaurs at the Lark Quarry stampede. www.southbank.qm.qld.gov.au

And finally there is Dig the Tropic, a geo-journey from Central Queensland to the Outback where it is possible to see unique fossil deposits and amazing rainforest menagerie frozen in time. Sites of interest along the way include the ancient Capricorn Caves near Rockhampton where you can watch a specialist from the Queensland Museum uncover the fossil remains of bulldog-sized ringtail possums, gigantic pythons known as mastoid snakes and Australia’s largest fossil frog.

An interpretive walk through the Camoo Caves in Mt Etna Caves National Park exposes limestone which is a 380 million year old fossilised coral reef. The drive continues west to Winton and the Outback dinosaurs and onto the Stone House Museum at Boulia with its display of vertebrate and invertebrate fossils including the remains of large fossil marine reptiles, sharks, and fish. www.digthetropic.com.au