Australian_Geographic_-_October_2015_

I

T WASN’T EXACTLY a fork in the

road David Elliott encountered

that day back in 1999 while out

mustering sheep on Belmont station

near Winton. But the unexpected

rock-like object which caught his eye

that morning in outback Queensland

• poking up from an otherwise flat,
  black-soil paddock – signalled the
  start of a journey for David and his
  family that would sweep them and
  their local community back 100
  million years into Australia’s prehis-
  toric past. That was a time when

massive dinosaurs roamed across

what was then a vast river plain with

abundant lakes and swamps, shaded by

a lowland forest of ferns and conifers.

David’s rocky discovery was famously

identified as the fossilised femur of a

giant sauropod, previously unknown

to science, and the rest, as they say, is

history (AG 65 and AG 83).

Sixteen years later, in May this year,

David and his team hosted celebra-

tions to mark the completion of the

first two stages of the innovative

Australian Age of Dinosaurs (AAOD)

museum, near Winton. The event also

launched a new endowment fund that

will ensure the museum’s financial

future, as well as the start of its third

and final stage of construction.

Speaking at the event, David

explained how the role of the museum

had changed since he and his wife,

Judy, first dreamt of a local facility to

house the plethora of bones that was

dug up after that life-changing 1999

find. “When we first started, we had

this vision of having a little dinosaur

museum in Winton,” he said. “We had

some bones and we didn’t want to see

The new age

of dinosaurs

High honour. AAOD Patron, Dame
Quentin Bryce, congratulates David
Elliott on the completion of the
fi rst two stages of the museum.

Model predator. A lifesize model of

5m carnivorous dinosaur Australovenator

wintonensis welcomes visitors to the museum’s

multi-award winning main reception centre.

CHRISSIE GOLDRICK

QUEENSLAND

WINTON

BRISBANE

AGS SUPPORTED PROJECT

20 Australian Geographic

Ground-breaking Queensland museum

celebrates the state’s prehistoric legacy.