IMAGINE heading off on holiday and making a 100 million-year-old discovery.
That’s exactly what happened recently to two families holidaying in the remote outback Queensland town of Richmond.
The lucky travellers uncovered an exceptionally rare skeleton of a 100-million-year-old fish with a swordfish-like head and monstrous teeth at a fossil-hunting site on Australia’s Dinosaur Trail.
Situated around the towns of Hughenden, Richmond and Winton, the trail is a prehistoric wonderland, a goldmine for fossil hunters and a must-visit destination for all dinosaur fans.
Here you can journey back millennia upon millennia as you hear wondrous tales of the dinosaurs that roamed the land and left their remains and their mark all over the Queensland outback.
Once part of an ancient inland sea abounding with marine life, the area is now a rich source of marine, dinosaur and megafauna fossils, from Mount Isa all the way to Eromanga.
You can discover which prehistoric creatures once roamed the land and visit one or all of the fascinating museums that house reconstructed dinosaur skeletons and fossil displays.
The landscape around Eromanga, Eulo and Quilpie in the south-west has also proven itself to be a bonanza for fossil hunters, when in 2009 Australia’s largest dinosaur, Cooper, a new titanosaur species, was unearthed.
Megafauna such as diprotodon (commonly referred to as giant wombats) have also been found in abundance, and you can visit a life-size statue in Eulo. Keep an eye out for information on the Natural Sciences Loop Road highlighting these exciting attractions across the southwest.
- Ask at the local Visitor Information Centre for more information or go to www.australiasdinosaurtrail.com
Fossil hunting: where to go
- Kronosaurus Korner in Richmond displays predominantly marine fossils.
- Riversleigh Fossil Centre in Mount Isa interprets the amazing megafauna finds discovered at the World Heritage-listed Riversleigh Fossil Fields, many previously unknown.
- Flinders Discovery Centre in Hughenden houses an international fossil collection as well as interpretive displays of the geological history of the region.
- You can also visit the site of the world’s best-preserved dinosaur stampede at Lark Quarry Conservation Park or explore further at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, Winton – and perhaps even participate in a dinosaur dig!
- The Eromanga Natural History Museum is the home of Australia’s largest dinosaur fossil discovery, the 95 to 98 million-year-old Eromanga dinosaurs.
- There is also the Outer Barcoo Interpretive Centre in Isisford.
- Alternatively, view the collections at Boulia’s Marine Reptile Fossil Display, Winton’s Corfield and Fitzmaurice Centre – even take a photo with the muttaburrasaurus replica in Muttaburra.
