TOD Tour 2.0 Day 15 - Australian Age of Dinosaurs

Australian Age of the Dinosaur

Since we first visited Winton with our children in 1995, we have been meaning to follow-up the dinosaur connection. Two subsequent visits, where doing so was the main reason we were in town, were unsuccessful in achieving the set aim.

The target of our objective has always been Lark Quarry, made world famous for showing a dinosaur stampede when big, hungryosaurs chased little scaredshitlessasaurs across a muddied plain. It certainly was still our objective when we left home. Then we got here and we had about a four hour return trip for a 45 minute guided tour. Half of the 220km trip would be over corrugated dirt road. The dirt and the corrugations didn't worry me - we have the car to manage those with ease - but the time and distance did. Bouncing Sue and her whinging back across those corrugations was also worrying me.

Closer to home was David Elliott's Australian Age of the Dinosaurs, the museum and research centre whose germination event was the discovery by Elliott of a giant femur, sticking out of a paddock as he was mustering sheep. A man of insatiable interest and keen entrepreneurial instinct, he enlisted the help of boffins and soon digs were underway which would uncover more than 17 pallets of dino bones. In 2005, Elliott investigate bones found on Elderslie Station and a subsequent dig found not only the most complete sauropod skeleton ever found in the world but also the bones of a theropod - the former a giant herbivore who would only ever order a vegetarian pizza and the latter, a standing Friday night order for a meatlover's with the lot. This is the only time in the world these two different dinosaurs have been found in the one dig site.

The facility is located on top of a "jump-up" about 26kms by road to the south east of Winton. A 'jump-up" is what is otherwise known as a mesa or one of those flat top hills you often see John Wayne and his horse sitting on while the Duke rolls a smoke and dreams about killing Liberty Valance. From across the plain, you meet it abruptly and climb to the top. The view becomes suddenly stunning.

The view from the top of the jump-up

The area where the various buildings of the museum exist was once part of Peter and Carol Britton's Mount Landsborough station and in 2006, Elliott approached them seeking to buy 1400 hectares. Britton refused to sell the land, which came as a blow to Elliott's vision for a museum perched on cliff top, overlooking the very plains that were yielding such a rich, 95 million year old history. Three days later, they saw each other at a function and Britton reiterated that he would not sell the land but in fact, wanted to donate it to the museum, which by now was a not for profit which had the support of the town.

The result is staggering. The main visitors centre is a beautiful creation of architectural design which fits so well in shape and colour with its environment. In it, the static displays of the bones of Matilda and Banjo - the veggie and meatlover twin act found in 2005 - are housed in a small theatre where a combination of audio visual and human explanation give animation to any tiredness that 95 million years has created in them.

Theropod supermarket

A five hundred metre walk along the cliff edge you'll find the laboratory, where bones which have been dug up are constantly being worked on. This happens slower than the discovery because stripping back nearly a hundred million years takes a bit of time. Pallets of bones encased in plaster of paris at the dig sites, lay on rack the height of two big Queensland stockman, one standing on the other's shoulders. I would have liked to have seen that. Here we were given a master class in the recovery of bones from digs and the side issue of fossils often found in conjunction.

Twice the distance away from the visitor centre, on the opposite side of this roughly U-shaped rim, is the wheelchair friendly walkway which takes in the first gullies below the capstone rock of the mesa. We reached it via a electric passenger vehicle and its trolley. There was an eerie resemblance to the early stages of Jurassic Park and I kept wishing I still had my plastic cup of water with me that I usually have in case of dinosaurs. I reminded Sue not to hide in the toilet if things went all Jeff Goldblum. Our guide Molly - only just graduated from secondary school - did a brilliant job of providing us with information about the dinosaurs of the area, how they lived and what they looked and acted like. Assisting this were several open air galleries where dinosaurs were life-size modeled, made from bronze. The colours of the landforms and the trees and the ever present view made for an impressive experience.

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We spent about four hours at Australian Age of the Dinosaurs. Initially, we were concerned at the entry cost ($55 adults/$50 seniors) but those reservations were blown away by an outstanding attraction.

As a result, any thought of visiting Lark Quarry has now been laid aside.