Discover Dino bones in Australia. Photo / Australian Age of Dinosaurs
Discover Dino bones in Australia. Photo / Australian Age of Dinosaurs
Outback site draws scientists on hunt for prehistoric gold, writes Leah McLennan.
The noise of a front-end loader searching for prehistoric bones rises into the air, along with red dust, in this parched paddock in western Queensland.
It's a cook-an-egg-on-the-ground kind of day on the outskirts of Winton, a town best known as the birth place of Waltzing Matilda. But the stinking hot weather doesn't bother the posse of scientists and volunteers huddled around the loader, eagerly waiting to see what else might be hidden in this black-soil plain.
The group is hunting for bones in a dinosaur graveyard stretching hundreds of square kilometres. For the experts, finding dinosaur bones that are 98 million years old is a dream come true, while for many of the volunteers it's the holiday of a lifetime.
Queensland Museum paleontologist Scott Hocknull is overseeing the dig. "I've been passionate about dinosaurs since I was about 8 years old," Hocknull says. "Coming out to Winton is one of the most exciting experiences that I've ever had."
The 13 volunteers on this week-long field trip vary in age, from 23-year-old Alex to 83-year-old June. Also taking part is a retired couple from Newcastle and their adult daughter ("we just love fossicking"), a single mother from Picton in New South Wales ("I've loved dinosaurs since I was a kid") and a retired woman from Brisbane ("I'm a repeat digger, so I'm known now as a dugger").
Photo / Australian Age of Dinosaurs
Joining them is Winton grazier and dinosaur enthusiast David Elliott, who spends the bulk of his time organising these digs.
Elliott stumbled on a bone in this area when he was mustering sheep. "I went straight past this patch of rocks and noticed something that didn't look like normal rock, and I thought I have to investigate it," he says. "It turned out to be a lump of dinosaur bone."
Fossilised footprints and tiny pieces of bone had been discovered in the area, but nothing as substantial as the huge thighbone. After showing his wife Judy, David sent the specimen to the Queensland Museum for identification - sure enough, it was dinosaur bone.
Since that day 10 years ago, digs in this area have produced the greatest hoard of dinosaur bones in Australia. Many bones belong to plant-eating sauropods, four-legged giants with long necks and tails, measuring about 20m long and 4m high, and weighing as much as five elephants.
The bones are displayed at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, a not-for-profit research centre 20km out of Winton. Anyone over age 18 can participate in the digs that take place three times a year. Volunteers can also work in the laboratory, helping to prepare the bones for display.
After a lunch break, David announces the group will move to a site a short drive away. The convoy of four-wheel-drives bounces under a sky devoid of clouds until David points towards a small patch of earth.
He stops the car, bounds into the paddock and then whisks some dirt to the side to reveal a giant femur. He is soon joined by Scott, who takes the bone and smiles like a Cheshire cat.
"This is very exciting," Scott says to the crowd around him, "because this is the bone of an animal that we haven't found before."
And with that, everyone from fresh-faced Alex to octogenarian June caught a fresh dose of dinosaur fever.
