We’re road tripping across Queensland for Queensland Dinosaur Week.
Featuring interviews with experts from the Queensland Museum, Eromanga Natural History Museum, Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum (Winton), and Kronosaurus Korner (Richmond), we find out what’s happening across the state from May 4-10, 2026.
For more info, check out https://dinosaurexperiences.com/queensland-dinosaur-week-2026/
Travis (00:08)
Hey there, I’m Travis Holland and I’m with my co-host Alyssa Fjeld are together, Fossils and Fiction and it’s been a little while. Hi Alyssa.
Alyssa (00:16)
It has been a while. How are you enjoying your early winter here in Australia?
Travis (00:21)
Yeah, pretty cool. I mean, it’s, you know, nowhere near the European winter that I experienced, which we talked about in our last episode. We’re turning into a tourism and travel podcast, I think, because this week I’m going to take you on a road trip all around Queensland. Are you ready?
Alyssa (00:37)
I’m ready. It’s gonna be like this American life, but it’s this fossil life.
Travis (00:41)
we’re going to hit the road for about a 2000 kilometre road trip. And this is in aid of Queensland Dino Week, which is May 4 to 10, 2026. Uh, it’s the first Queensland Dino Week. And, um, just to give you an overview of what that is, is basically everything palaeo in the state of Queensland, which is one of Australia’s biggest states. think the second biggest state is
open for Queensland Dino Week. They’re all running special experiences and it’s going to be huge but yeah you’ve you’ve got to get on the road to see it all. All more importantly wherever you are in Queensland there’s there’s something for you so it’s pretty exciting.
Alyssa (01:22)
Yeah,
Queensland, famously here in Australia, is where a lot of our more famous dinosaurs come from. If you’ve been following the news, you might have seen the recent muttaburrasaurus reconstruction. Muttaburrasaurus is a stop on the Queensland Dino Week tour. They’ve also got a lot of great speakers, some of whom Travis had a chance to interview exclusively.
Travis (01:34)
Mm-hmm.
I did. So we will start our road trip with Jo Wilkinson at the Queensland Museum. This is located in Brisbane, but in addition to Joe’s work at Brisbane as a fossil preparator, she’s going to tell us all about what happens at Chinchilla, the Southwestern town in Queensland, Chinchilla fossil finders and various other activities. So that is the first stop on the road trip, going from Brisbane to Chinchilla with
Jo Wilkinson from Queensland Museum. That works.
Alyssa (02:15)
That’s so exciting. We always hear about
Queensland Museum, but I’ve never heard of Chinchilla.
Joanne Wilkinson (02:20)
my name is Joanne Wilkinson. I work as a fossil preparator and conservator at the Queensland Museum. And I’ve been here for about 35 years this year. I’ve had experience working on all sorts of material from around Queensland. lots of different sediments and lots of different modes of preservation.
I love working at the museum. It’s an honor and a pleasure every day I come to work. I’m amazed.
I started going up to Chinchilla regularly every year to do the World Science Festival. And then
That led on to us making a connection with the local Chinchilla Historical Museum. And they were very keen to partner and be the host of a special activity that we started four years ago. And we wanted to invite the local community to an event where they could be citizen scientists for the day and help us sieve material.
and sort material from the very significant beds of sediment that are in the area. And they came and every year it’s grown bigger and bigger. And what we get out of it is an amazing amount of these tiny microfossils.
So you walk around the eroded gullies and after rain these pieces, often pieces, broken up pieces of larger animals you can find on the floor of the gullies or coming out of the sides of the gullies. But it’s very hard to find anything tiny because when you’re walking around it’s too hard to see. You need to sieve this material.
and then look at it under either a magnifying lamp or a microscope to actually see the tiny weeny animals. So we have a pretty good idea of the megafauna that lived in the Pliocene at Chinchilla, because they’re slightly older than the Pleistocene beds at the Eastern Darling Downs. These are Pliocene, and they’re aged around about 3 and 1 million years old.
Travis (04:14)
Mm-hmm.
Joanne Wilkinson (04:25)
So we have a pretty good idea because lots and lots of fossils have come in and there’s been many, papers, scientific papers written over the years on these animals. But very little sieving and sorting of the tiny material has been done. There has been some done, but we just thought that’s where the gap is. So four years ago, we decided to…
systematically start collecting material from the site and we’ve been sieving and sorting. And it’s great fun for the general public to come in. They get a bit muddy and it’s very easy to do, washing material through a sieve and then we allow it to dry and then we usually bring dried material from the year before because it takes a little while to dry and we never know whether it’s going to be a sunny day or a cloudy day.
Travis (05:15)
Yeah.
Joanne Wilkinson (05:16)
material that we’ve dried from the year before, we ask the community if they’d like to sit down and sort through that. And the gems that we find are the tiny teeth belonging to rodents, belonging to little mammals. So lizards, we find lizard teeth. We’ve just found a little snake vertebra, which is tiny. And these things are usually
Travis (05:26)
Okay.
Okay.
Joanne Wilkinson (05:41)
you know, half a mil and probably three mils or two mils in size. So they are the tiny little creatures that lived in the same time in the same environment, but we’ve hardly seen before.
Travis (05:56)
So, you’re handing a sieve to someone who has maybe never looked for fossils in their life. What are you telling them to look for? And then, what’s their reaction when they find something?
Joanne Wilkinson (06:01)
Yes. Yes. So yeah,
it’s really lovely. There’s usually a family, some children and mum and dad sitting there. We give them a sieve. We put some sediment in the sieve and then they dunk it in some water. So they’re sort of jiggling it around in the water. And the silt washes away and what’s left is a lot of sand.
because the formation that this material is in is quite a silica-rich, sandy material formation. And they get to see on the top of the sieve in the sunshine normally these shiny little things that are mostly bones. So they will see usually anything that’s toothed will still have some enamel on it. And if it’s wet, it will really shine up very clearly.
that it’s a tooth. So they can usually see teeth very well. There’s some Queensland Museum staff with them, so we always help them look in the sieve and we can find whatever. And they get a chance to talk to a true expert.
on what they’ve just found in the sieve. So it’s a fabulous chance to get a one-on-one with a real-life palaeontologist who is the active researcher in the site. So it’s a pretty good experience, I think. And it’s very, I think it’s one of the few experiences where you are literally finding these things the same in real time. You are handing them to the expert.
who is going to tell you whether it’s significant or not. And it’s magic. It’s magic,
Travis (07:39)
Yeah.
So, Chinchilla Fossil Finders is coming up, but what else is happening out at Chinchilla? Anything else that the museum is involved in or you’re involved in for Queensland Dino Week?
Joanne Wilkinson (07:43)
Yes.
the Chinchilla Historical Museum has taken this project on with amazing gusto. So they host the event and they put on a fabulous meal at lunchtime for people to buy. They also open the doors of the of the or the the museum is actually not open on the day, but they open the area. There’s a little train ride.
Travis (07:57)
Mm-hmm.
Joanne Wilkinson (08:15)
We have a person who comes in with animals, live animals. So there’s a live animal show which kind of relates to the animals they’re finding in the fossil. You know, the fossil animals can, you know, that’s a snake. We’ve got a snake here. It’s all kind of joined in. But the other thing that happens throughout the year, the museum has said if anybody in the community wants to come and sort this material, even when the Queensland Museum aren’t here, they’re very welcome to do so.
So I do a workshop whenever we go up for the event for fossil finders. Two days before the event, I usually do a workshop at the museum. that’s to this year, we’ve invited a group of people who from last year’s event said that they were interested in learning. So we will have seven or eight people who’ve signed up for that workshop.
and they are able to come into the museum anytime they want. Well, as long as Kath, the director, is there and lets them in. But they’ll be given all the equipment they need and they can just stay there and serve and sort for sort of two or three hours, anytime they want, really, that fits into their schedule and Kath’s schedule. So it’s a fabulous kind of way of the local community taking ownership of the project.
and working with the Queensland Museum. The other thing they’ve done is purchase little digital microscopes. So if they find something that they’re not sure of, they can take an image and send it to Jonathan, who works in the Museum Discovery Centre. And Jonathan is right there to answer any queries or to identify any specimens that they can send. So without really doing anything out of our business as usual,
we’re able to build this amazing connection with this community out in Chichilla and enable them with their local museum to kind of participate in the work in their own environment. they’re really not relying on us too much to initiate the work, but we’re all working together. And I just think that’s a fabulous outcome for the community.
Travis (10:24)
Yep.
Joanne Wilkinson (10:30)
On the night of the 9th of May, in the area just adjacent to the Chinchilla Historical Museum is the Chinchilla Botanical Gardens. And in the botanical gardens at 5pm, we’re showing the ABC catalyst documentary, Megafauna, What Killed Australian Giants, narrated by Hugh Jackman. And then after that,
at 6pm we’re showing Ben Stiller comedy Night at the Museum. So that’s a new edition this year and we’d love everybody to come down and enjoy us down there.
Dinosaurs are around that 100 million years and a bit older, but our fossils are only 3.5 million. But they form a very interesting group called the megafauna.
And we’re looking at the tiny ones that lived alongside the megafauna. And they’re a fascinating group of animals. are many extinct, all extinct, but they were the forebears of lots of the lovely animals we have today.
Travis (11:34)
you indicated that you’re also bringing some live creatures into the, into the show on the day. So people get to make those links between those creatures that were here, you know, only a few million years ago to what we have around today.
Joanne Wilkinson (11:38)
Yep.
Exactly, yeah. And it’s all about just understanding that it was a great diverse environment and as time changed those environments changed as well. Different animals at different times and these fossils give us a glimpse into what was there. The more that we can find the more that we can understand those links between the animals.
Travis (12:04)
Yeah.
Alyssa (12:10)
Well, that was a fabulous first stop on our trip, Travis. I can’t imagine what you have for us after that.
Travis (12:16)
Yeah, back on the road in my EV and hopefully there’s some charging spots out here in Western Queensland. We are on our way even further west to the Eromanga Natural History Museum and Robyn McKenzie is the director out there. Robyn is one of the founders of the museum and Eromanga is a small town but they have done an amazing job. They have some of the biggest dinosaurs in the country.
out there in southwest Queensland in this beautiful little town called Eromanga. So that’s our next stop.
Alyssa (12:50)
That’s exciting! I’ve never been to Eromanga but I’ve seen lots and lots of images of the creatures that they dig up out there.
Robyn Mackenzie OAM (12:58)
The Eromanga Natural History Museum is just outside of Eromanga three kilometres outside of Eromanga. Eromanga
Our region sits in an area where it’s very central to the Eromanga Basin and it overlies the Cooper Basin which are very strategic structural basins in the history of the geology of Australia and have a huge influence in why the Eromanga Sea actually formed and it was actually the last chapter in the Eromanga Sea so it’s effectively the remaining puddle would have been in this area.
of the Eromanga Sea back in 100 million years ago, 90 million years ago when it was retreating. So Eromanga has its own story, its own chapter in the whole evolution of the Eromanga Sea and its geological history as well. And hence the Eromanga Natural History Museum has a role to play in that to interpret and to preserve this uniqueness of this area,
the beginning came just about 22 years ago when a piece of fossilised dinosaur bone the size of my wrist, my fist,
was found by my son and caught an accidental find and just an inquisitive 14 year old boy doing his job mustering and looking around and also looking at rocks. So that started it all and what came from that has been quite extraordinary and that’s led to discoveries of more dinosaur sites but not anymore dinosaur sites like incredibly important dinosaurs which have led to new species and new
numerous
of them. We’ve got, I think we’ve got 11 in the lab at the moment that we’re actually working on for research. So, and it’s incredibly slow, you know, because a lot of them are very, very big dinosaurs. dinosaurs will always lead. They’re always the most coolest things.
Travis (14:30)
Mm-hmm.
Robyn Mackenzie OAM (14:42)
that you can discover really and think you’ll agree with that.
Travis (14:45)
Yeah, look everybody
loves a good dinosaur.
Robyn Mackenzie OAM (14:48)
Yep. And so they led the story. And then from there we went, I guess being landholders as we are, I’m off a property west of Eromanga again. So we were landholders. I’ve been here for 40 years and my husband’s family has been on the property for over 80 years. So we’re sort of very much part of the area, I guess.
and know that what happens in terms of rainfall and everything that goes on in this country we’ve got a pretty good grip on in relatively short time geologically speaking, but from a European settlement point of view, it’s quite a long time. So we understand what’s important. We understand that it’s really important to keep your heritage, your cultural heritage, your natural heritage within the region.
of discovery and I guess we weren’t really setting out to do what we ended up doing. Like when we first found that, what we did, and our son found that piece of dinosaur bone, that just sort of triggered something in the back of our mind, our conscience I guess, that led us to where we are today with establishing our natural history museum. I guess we knew that this sort of material just normally always went to a state museum.
out any question and sometimes overseas. And I guess we were in a generation where we were starting to question things and things just, know, some things you felt needed to change. And we knew that wouldn’t be easy because there’s established, there’s always that status quo that like, you know, you do what everyone else has done and just, you know, behave sort of things.
So we perhaps weren’t of that thinking and both of us, both Stuart and I were both quite determined to keep all this within our region. And then, you know, of course we had the backing of the resources companies, we had the backing of the community. We also had backing of Geosciences Australia team at the Queensland Museum as well. And in particular, I have to say Scott Hucknall, who you’ve probably met, and also Joe Wilkinson and Mel Wilkinson.
and other members of the team as well. So without that support, I guess we would have struggled to learn what we needed to know to establish and maintain and preserve and do everything we needed to do to get to where we are today with these collections.
Travis (17:11)
you’ve mentioned Cooper, and for now, Cooper I guess is known as Australia’s largest dinosaur. Tell us about that discovery.
Robyn Mackenzie OAM (17:20)
So that discovery was back in 2006 and Stuart and I were mustering as we did a lot of, he still does, I don’t do much of now.
Travis (17:31)
You’re running a museum, you don’t have time for mustering anymore.
Robyn Mackenzie OAM (17:32)
Yeah, no, they kind of realised
that and I was wasting my time and I went mustering. I was looking for other things. yeah, look, back then we were mustering and I’d actually, interestingly enough, another dinosaur site, not Cooper’s site, which is nicknamed George and George is probably going to be bigger than Cooper as it turns out, but George actually is, we know that now. But he’s part of Australotitan cooperensis
Travis (17:39)
You
Robyn Mackenzie OAM (17:57)
He’s a referred to specimen So I’d found a piece of bone which at the time I was a bit new to the game So I just needed to check with others to make sure that it was bone and there was a lot of this bone on the surface So said wow, that’s quite incredible. Anyway, so I Put it down the front of my shirt because I was riding a motorbike and I needed to hang on so Met up with Stuart we pulled up both bikes pulled up beside each other and I just pulled this out of
front of my shirt and showed it to him and we both discussed it and said yeah no that looks like Donald Sorbonne know, authorities as we were at the time. Anyway so then we
both just looked up in front of us and probably about, gosh, five to 10 metres in front of us, not even that. We just saw something and we both got up at the same time. We actually didn’t say anything. We just parked our bikes and just got up and started walking ahead of us. And what we were seeing was the condols or the big end bones of the femur, which turned out to be the bones of first bones on the surface of Cooper. Now to us, they just looked like big pieces.
dinosaur bone. We had no idea what scale meant or anything at that stage. Like we never had any, we had no idea what a big dinosaur looked like or a little dinosaur looked like or anything like that and I guess I was a bit naive really because when you think about what those elements were, which I guess then we didn’t actually know either what they exactly were, that should have given us the clue. Anyway of course when we sent photos down to
that then triggered the first excavation, proper dig and all the rest of it that was to come
And we found the humerus, which is the upper arm bone. And we didn’t know it was humerus, of course, we measured it all and removed it and took it back to our field at the house. And it turned out that it was one of the largest in the world. It was up there with one of the largest in the world. So that actually then
kind
of confirmed that this site really had a lot of potential and that was what started the next dig and then we found all the bones belonging to Cooper and it just went on from there. We found more sites when we digging, we found the truckway, we found all sorts of things so yeah it’s amazing.
Travis (19:44)
Mm-hmm.
So you
really are building a world-class museum out there at Eromanga and what does it take in, you know, maybe not one of the most remote parts of the country, but a remote part of Australia in a small town nonetheless, what does it take to build a museum like that out there?
Robyn Mackenzie OAM (20:09)
Yeah, yeah.
it takes naivety to start, ⁓ honestly.
Travis (20:17)
You
And willing to say, it shouldn’t all go back to Brisbane, right?
Robyn Mackenzie OAM (20:22)
Yeah, and that as well. So that’s exactly right. So I guess if someone had told us how difficult it was going to be.
to do this back in 2004, we would have probably not been quite prepared for that. And it’s like a lot of things, it’s like when you have children, you’re not prepared for them when you have them, but then you wouldn’t have it any different, you know, 10 years later, even one year later. So it’s a bit the same if it’s probably not a bad comparison, actually, you grow with it, and you learn with it, and everything starts falling into place, you know, there’s a lot of successes and disappointments and
all sorts of things along the road and you wonder whether it’s all worth it and all the rest of it. But when you’re dealing with something as important and as significant and as rare and that has so many economic benefits and so many educational benefits and the list just goes on and on and on, you can’t ignore it. So and you can’t turn back once you start. So it’s, you know, the momentum’s there. You’ve got so many people behind you wanting this to happen. Yeah, so
I guess, Travis, the thing is that it was naivety. We were just like, you know, had our head in the clouds a little bit. You know, we’re pretty excited about the dinosaur discoveries and, you know, then we just, okay, we’ll build a museum. That should be easy. You know, the government will give us lots of money. It won’t be a problem. And it’ll be so easy. But it was not like that and it’s still not like that. None of it’s been easy.
Travis (21:34)
Yep. Why not?
⁓
Queensland Dinosaur Week, which is coming up at the start of May. Eromanga Natural History Museum is part of this, so what can people expect as part of Queensland Dino Week? And in general, if people come out to visit Eromanga, what can they expect?
Robyn Mackenzie OAM (21:58)
Well, when they come out to visit the Eromanga region, I mean, obviously we’re in the, we’re in the heart of where the Eromanga Sea was, I guess, if you can imagine that, like 90 odd to 100 and to 90 odd million years ago. You’re not, you’re not actually at Eromanga. You’re not actually on the sediments of the Eromanga Sea because that, that it’s still underneath it. But where the dinosaurs are west of there, where we are, you’re on the silt that filled up the Eromanga Sea. So, and that’s like across the rest of Queensland.
up around Winton and Longreach and Richmond and all that. That’s all sort of the silt that’s filled it up, well Richmond’s more on the seabed up there. So Eromanga is the, probably as I said to you earlier, it’s the last place where the Eromanga Sea actually existed because it’s the deepest part, because it actually sagged, the whole area sagged in this area. It’s a whole other geological story. And so yeah, you’re coming into a really significant
geological area and that’s part of what we really want to interpret well in our next stage of the building. So when people come to the museum they’ll see not only a beautiful building, it’s been architecturally designed, won lots of awards, it’s still in its development stage because we’ve only built stage one and two and stage three is going to start at the end of the year. So you will see that you can do tours.
You can do tours, Australian Giants Tour, so that gets you to see, you learn, you see an audio visual first and then you, which also won awards. Then you go and see the bones over in the workshop at the moment. That will all change in stage three. You’ll see them in a more sophisticated gallery. But yeah, so in that process, you get to see the real bones of Cooper. You get to see the bones that we’re working on that I mentioned earlier.
you know the different dinosaurs that we’re working on, you get to see the megafauna and that’s just in the one hour tour but then there’s also things like learning to prep so you can do that in all different ways you can do it for 10 days, you can do it for one day, you can do it for one hour, you can do it with your family, you can do it on your own there’s all different ways you can actually try and get to know what we do and have an experience out there and on top of that we have luxury accommodation on site so you can
Travis (24:07)
Mm-hmm.
Robyn Mackenzie OAM (24:12)
make it a real experience. So for Dinosaur Week there’s a whole schedule of events. they’ve got Twilight talks and there’s a whole bunch of different things that they’re doing over that period. So the team’s been really busy pulling that together and they’re very excited and it’s going to be a fabulous week and thanks to DEA for getting behind that.
launching the very first I guess Australian dinosaur week which is fantastic.
Alyssa (24:39)
really cool to see someone like Robyn taking on that museum directorship position. and it’s really exciting to hear what she’s going to do next. And what is next for you on your road trip, Travis?
Travis (24:50)
We are going to chat to someone with one of the most Australian names ever and that is Macca. Officially Mackenzie Enchelmaier but she introduced herself as Macca. And Macca is the collection manager at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum in Winton. And this is where Diamantinasaurus is from, but also Australovenator, which is our, of course, features on our logo, our wonderful mascot, yeah, Scratch.
Alyssa (25:13)
That’s right.
And Macca is a fabulous person. If you’ve listened to Adele’s podcast or you know Adele, Macca is another person from the Steven Poropal’s group. So this is a group of researchers looking at early dinosaur evolution, or looking at dinosaur evolution in Australia. And they’re just a fabulous group to get to know. They’re very wholesome, very supportive of one another. So it’s good to see you getting one of the final Poropals in for an interview.
Macca (25:42)
My name is Mackenzie Enchelmaier I’m the collection and laboratory manager at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History in Winton, Queensland.
Australian Asian Dinosaurs is, I guess what it sounds like a dinosaur museum in the middle of Outback Queensland. And so we’re based exactly where we’re actually excavating the fossil material. And my job is the long-term conservation of that fossil material, as well as running our digs and running our laboratory and managing our exhibition development facility as well to make sure that all of that goes nice and smoothly and that all our fossils stay safe and that we can put them on display and have them studied and have them available to the public.
Travis (26:19)
And what’s it like being part of a museum out there in Winton? Are you a local?
Macca (26:24)
I’m not a local, I’m a ring in, but it’s wonderful. I think that in addition to having such a wonderful small museum with such a strong team, you also have the beauty of Outback Queensland and being able to be part of a small town and a small town community is really, really special. In addition to that, like the community that is the museum itself.
Travis (26:27)
Mm-hmm.
How did you come into the role there?
Macca (26:48)
Yeah, so I have always loved collection management. I started doing collection management. and learning about it when I was 15, volunteering at Queensland Museum under Kristin Spring there. I came out here on an internship in 2022, because I was trying not to be another student with a bachelor’s degree that didn’t have a job. So was like, I’ll get some more, you experience at other institutions. And I was meant to be here for 10 days, and then go away.
to Greece on some field trips. COVID stopped the Greece field trip and then I decided that I actually didn’t want to leave Outback Queensland. So I stayed and took up reception roles and two abiding roles and eventually a spot came in the laboratory where I got to sort of, I was the laboratory coordinator so I could oversee the fossil preparation under our curator at the time. And then over time I just kind of worked my way up into doing what I love and that is collection management.
we have the most complete theropod dinosaur from Australia, which is Australovenator wintonensis ⁓ is it? Hell yeah. That’s sick. So yeah, Banjo is actually just about to undergo what has undergone re-description. That’s actually getting revised at the moment, that manuscript. We also have, we have so much, we have four, well, in addition to Banjo, we have four other.
Travis (27:51)
Which is our logo. Yes, absolutely.
Macca (28:09)
holotypes at the museum. So we have two more sauropod holotypes, is Diamantinasaurus matildae which is one of the best understood sauropods globally. Not only do we have most of the skeleton across, not just the holotype, but also referred specimens. So from the skull all the way through to caudal vertebrae in the limbs, we also have gut content and fossilized skin, which is terrific. And then we have the holotype specimen for Savannasaurus eliotorum, which is another sauropod.
Travis (28:10)
Mm-hmm.
Macca (28:35)
And then we have Ferrodraco lentoni which is a pterosaur, which at the time of publication was the most complete in Australia at a whopping 11%, which has now been overtaken by Haliskia peterseni which was found a couple of hours north from here in Richmond. And then we Confractosuchus sauroktonos which is a lovely little crocodile that has fossilized that content of one of the only ornithopod remains found from the winter formation.
Travis (28:59)
Yeah, so a nice spread. know, some sites become known for just one type of creature, but you’ve got a bit of a spread out there at Winton and at AOD, so that’s great.
Macca (29:10)
Yeah, it’s incredible the amount of diversity in just the fossils that are being found out here. And it’s not just dinosaurs and it’s not just large vertebrates, but we’re starting to find more and more micro vertebrate remains as well, which is terrific. And as time’s gone on, we’re getting more people to publish on them and study them. So there is so much more to be done in the Winton formation and within just the fossils that we have in our collection.
Travis (29:30)
Yeah.
what’s happening out at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum for Queensland Dino Week?
Macca (29:39)
So we have a couple of events coming on. Most notably is that we have Dr. Dean Lomax, coming out to visit us. And he’s actually going to do a presentation on impacts of palaeotourism from a palaeontologist’s perspective. That’s going be happening on the 4th of May at about 2 o’clock. And then just some tours around the place and…
supporting I guess our other institutions who are also you know partaking in Dino Week and just getting it out to the public and getting people passionate about palaeontology
it’s really easy to love dinosaurs and it’s really easy to love palaeontology. But I feel that sometimes it’s just as easy to think that everything kind of happens in the background and that there isn’t going along. And when we have big events like this, gives every institution the opportunity to shine a spotlight on itself and be like, look at all the amazing things that we’re doing here every day. And there is a future in this.
If you have a kid that’s really passionate about it, you should support them and get them involved. you know, even if you’re an adult and you’re passionate about it, you know, stay involved, stay interested, help where you can be part of it. Yeah, I think it’s wonderful.
Travis (30:43)
Is there anything you can give us a preview about what’s coming up at Australian Age of Dinosaurs in the next, you know, six months, year?
Macca (30:50)
Oh, so much. We’ve, we so we have our like standard experiences, I guess, where like we have our Prep-a-Dino program, which is where, you know, as long as you’re at the age of 12, and you can color between the lines, we’re happy to teach you how to prep a fossil. So we have that running gear around. And it’s honestly just wonderful to have so many people engaged as like citizen scientists in the project. We also have our Dig-a-Dino which is really similar where you know, anyone over the age of 18 can
Travis (31:10)
Mm-hmm.
Macca (31:16)
know, pay and join us on our digs and actually be a part of that and help us excavate this wonderful fossil material. We’ve also started doing shorter workshops, so like six day paleo workshops where it’s not just prepping, we’re also doing a lot more sitting and sorting and like throwing a little bit of collection management in there because I think the one thing that we’re really passionate about is citizen science and not just citizen science in the sense of like people helping contribute to our projects.
but also giving back. Like there are so many people out there that are super passionate about fossils and have their own collections. And know, how can you better look after those fossils? You know, are you writing down a provenance of where you find them? You know, making sure that people understand like the best way to preserve the significance of these specimens long-term.
Travis (31:57)
Something else I love about Australian Age of Dinosaurs is often with a museum the thing is what’s in the museum itself, right? What’s inside the building. But I think there’s a nice relationship out there with the landscape and other aspects of what’s happening out there. You have a walk that goes down through, is it a little valley or a gully with some ancient cycads and things as well.
Macca (32:17)
Yeah.
Yeah, so we have the deep gully walk, is like sort of natural. And then, we have the dinosaur canyon walk as well, which is where we’ve got it’s like the Cretaceous garden section, which is where we’re growing cycads The plan there is essentially to try and recreate what the Cretaceous ecosystem would have looked like here 95 million years ago, which is actually doing pretty well for now, which is wonderful. But yeah, think the environment out here is so beautiful and it’s probably one of the best assets the museum has.
is not like the natural environment where the museum base is also making sure that the museum doesn’t, I guess, like outshine it, that it’s a part of it. That’s really, really important to the vision of the museum and the future of the museum and sharing that with people.
Winton itself has actually become a dark sky community, which is wonderful. So, yeah, if anyone does come out to Winton, you just walk around at night. And even though you’ve got streetlights, you can still see the sky for the stars. It’s beautiful. And we’re also going to start offering light and shadows kind of show in the evenings to sort of enhance on our dinosaur canyon walk, enhance on the darkness and kind of make it a more like a
Not quite a 4d experience, but much more immersive. To kind of bring people back 95 billion years ago and recreate that in the environments that we have.
Travis (33:34)
if somebody is thinking about getting out there to Winton to visit the Australian Age of Dinosaurs, what can they expect? What should they do? What’s the must and what do they need to consider before they jump on a plane or drive?
Macca (33:47)
Yeah, so probably the biggest thing is just getting to Winton. think that’s the if you don’t want to drive, which a lot of people don’t, are still Winton has an airport. So there’s flights in and then we have a tour company in town for Red Dirt Tours who you will come with them and they will actually drive you around, which makes everything super easy. And there’s also buses from Longreach into Winton, which just makes everything great.
You come up to the museum, we’ve got our three tours. So we actually take you around our laboratory, which is where all of our preparation happens. And you can actually talk to our fossil technicians who are predominantly prepidonic participants and volunteers, and actually talk to them about what they’re doing. And we can show you the preparation process. We have our collection room tour, which is where we store our holotypes. So we’re a very unique museum in that we actually have our holotypes available for public viewing.
They are in a lovely temperature humidity dust control room and it’s safe enough for the public to see them. We keep a nice close eye on them. And that’s where you get to see Banjo, Oshila Venator. That’s where we have Matilda and Wade as well. And some really other important sauropods, gum material. And our final tour is the March of Titanosaurs and Dinosaur Canyon. So March of Titanosaurs is a 53 meter long.
track site that we actually relocated up here to the museum in order to keep it safe because it just would have been destroyed by the creek that exposed it. And that has sauropod, ornithopods, arapods, turtle, crocodile footprints, as well as some lungfish feeding traces, evidence of plants. It’s unique for Australia. So we have a lovely little tour of that. And then the Dinosaur Canyon Walk, is life-sized bronze statues of dinosaurs all the way down to the dinosaurs that we find out here in this area.
along with the Cretaceous Gardens, know, those cypads, pines, ferns, things like that. And just absolutely breathtaking views of sort of, guess, what is the natural heritage out here in the environment that is just, it’s, you you have these big jump ups, but it’s flat outside of that, which is absolutely beautiful.
Travis (35:45)
Yeah.
Travis (35:48)
as you mentioned Alyssa, Macca is, one of the group of Stephen Poropat’s, mentees, I guess, along with Adele Pentland, friend of the podcast, who runs her own show, Pals in
Alyssa (35:54)
Yeah.
Travis (35:57)
Palaeo So, worth checking out. Stephen Poropat’s also been on the show previously. So yeah, lots
familiar names on our road trip so far.
Alyssa (36:05)
Well, it’s not a huge world here in Australia, but let’s hear from a new voice in the crowd.
Travis (36:08)
This is a new voice. was Travis on Travis for this interview. So, ⁓ Travis Enright otherwise known as @Trav_Fossils Now Trav is a fossil influencer, a palaeontology influencer here in Australia. He has so many followers, really exciting and
Alyssa (36:13)
Ooh!
Travis (36:26)
He is involved in digging up at Richmond for Kronosaurus Korner So we’re moving further north in Queensland there and yeah, Trav’s gonna tell us all about what’s happening at Richmond for Kronosaurus Korner as part of Queensland Dino Week.
Alyssa (36:41)
I know there are a couple of friends up at Kronosaurus Korner at the moment. They’re preparing for some really cool revamps of the artwork around the place. So if you remember our interview with Zev Landes this might be an exciting location for you to keep in mind for your Dino Week journey.
Travis (36:56)
my name’s Travis Enright and I go by the name Trav Fossils on Instagram and TikTok.
Travis (37:02)
and trav fossils that gives away what you do really. You’re a, you’re a fossil influencer. One of the, one of the biggest in the country as far as I can tell.
Travis (37:11)
Yeah, I think the biggest in the country now, which is pretty crazy. That’s only happened in like the last year so. But yeah, digging up fossils and putting it online. That’s my jam.
Travis (37:22)
Travis, we wanted to chat to you about Queensland Dino Week. You’re hosting a bit of a workshop up there in Richmond. Tell me about that.
Travis (37:32)
Yeah, so I’ve been up there digging for fossils for four or five years now. so, Kronosaurus Korner have asked me to run a couple of digging workshops, just because I’ve had enough experience there at the dig sites now. So I’ll be taking out guests in the morning for digging at dawn tour. So it’s essentially where tourists join me to dig for fossils where I found
all the fossils in all my videos, you’ll be digging at the same place. So we’ll be scratching around and seeing what we can find, which is, it’s a pretty amazing thing to do. you kind of in this old quarry and the sediments around you’re basically all by valve shells and you’ve got belemnites and turtle fossils and fish fossils everywhere. And so people just come out with me and we’ll be flipping over rocks and seeing what we can find. that’s
You know, it sounds a bit gimmicky, but it’s not. There’s actually heaps of marine reptiles out there. And every year there’s a couple more found just through these tours and doing them. So I’ll be running a couple of those tours during dinosaur week.
Travis (38:34)
I noticed recently you’ve been putting some stories of an elasmus saw up on your Instagram account. Tell me about that.
Travis (38:41)
Yeah, so last year, me and a mate were out digging and we found a few strange bones and he ended up leaving the site and handed it over to me. And so I kept like digging around and for about a month didn’t really find much else of this animal. We were only finding little fragments of bones. But it was a bit of a hint that there was something big nearby and
Eventually after like, I think it was like four or five weeks of digging, I kind of hit the main skeleton of this animal and it turned out to be an elasmosaur. So at the moment we’ve got like the jaw, the neck, I think the next complete, we’ve got like one flipper, maybe one and a half flippers and like the front of the torso that those sort of girdle bones. And it was going back under a hill. So now we’ve got a bulldozer and we’ve taken away the hill.
And we’re going to be starting up digging like mid May and we’ll try and get the rest of the skeleton out. We’re kind of assuming the second half of the skeleton is back in there, but we’re not entirely sure because it’s crunched up by Kronosaurus There’s bite marks all through these bones. So for all we know, the other half of the skeleton has been eaten, but we’re hoping that it’s still somewhat intact behind that hill.
Travis (39:58)
when we go out there for Queensland Dino Week for anyone who’s not been on a dig before, what will they actually experience? What will they get to see?
Travis (40:07)
You’ll definitely find a fossil. That’s a guarantee. So you’ll kind of hop into like a pit, like a hole in the ground, and you’ll be able to see all the layers, like in a cross section beside you. And you’ll be taught how to pick which layers are like the most fossil bearing and then kind of aim for them. So you’ll be given, you know, pick, chisel, all that stuff. And
Yeah, I’ll just be there with you to guide you if you find anything you yell out and you know, what’s this? What’s that? And we kind of take we peel back the layers and get down to the good fossil rich layers and then just like, yeah, have a dig around, see what we find. It’s pretty chill. It only goes for like a couple of hours in the coolest part of the day. But yeah, like, I don’t know, like that. It’s kind of the most exciting thing about these tours is that you don’t know what to expect.
Travis (40:57)
Yeah.
Travis (40:57)
You
never know what you’re going to find any day out there. It could be like the most boring start to a day ever. Like no one will be finding anything. And then it’s just like someone flips over one rock and it’s like, Oh my God, like that is insane. That is a terrorist or that like, you never know when it’s going to, um, you know, just turn your day. We’ll just like turn into something else. So I don’t know. It’s like, it’s, it’s exciting that you never know what you’re going to expect, but you’re always going to be finding fossils. They are everywhere out there.
so I’m starting up a, like a, an event called the great Aussie fossil hunt and it’s out there at the dig site. And if you find every fossil on a list, you know, you get different awards. there’s like, vouchers you can use to spend in town. There’s like different medals and stuff for pieces worth donating.
Travis (41:33)
Okay.
Okay.
Travis, tell me about your new initiative, the great Aussie fossil hunt.
Travis (41:55)
Yeah. So last year I had a mission to find every fossil series posted online. And so that was where I had a list of fossils and I just decided to challenge myself where I had to tick off every fossil on that list. And so I’ve decided to bring that into real life now. So people that come to Richmond and Outback Queensland, want to go into the fossil hunting sites at Richmond if they apply for this list.
They can then see if they can tick off every fossil from that list like I tried to. if they do, well, actually, so there’s many different categories. So if you find like five fossils, you get like a free coffee or something. If you find a piece worth donating, there’s a different prize and so forth.
If you find every fossil on the list, up to 10 grand. So it’s an incentive by the town to draw people out there. thing. This list would be very hard to complete. You have about a month to do it. But if you do, there’s 10 grand potentially on the line. And of course, like a host of different awards and prizes for a certain amount of fossils and types of fossils as well.
lots to be excited about.
Travis (43:05)
Yeah, so lots of different stakeholders in Richmond are getting behind that, including Kronosaurus Korner and the local council as well, as well as some other businesses. So yeah, sounds like a great initiative. And if you’re keen, you can get out to Richmond and contribute to digging up and preserving Australia’s past.
Travis (43:11)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly it. So it’s going to benefit the town hugely if this takes off and people want to come there to try and tick off this list. That’s just amazing for the town. If people stay an extra night, you know, that’s for the caravan park, for the other accommodation centers in town. That’s huge, huge income. So yeah, we’re hoping it goes well, maybe not this year or next year, but in a couple of years time, it’ll pick up.
And yeah, the Great Aussie Fossil Hunt will be kind of like a staple of central Queensland that people come and visit just to do.
Travis (43:55)
Sounds great. Well, I hope people get out there for the great Aussie Fossil Hunt and everything else that Richmond and central Queensland has to offer in palaeontology.
Travis (44:06)
just to flag a couple of the other things that are happening as part of Queensland Dino Week. And we can’t cover all of them here on the episode, but, Zev Landes, who you already mentioned, friend of the show, created our logo, and our creatures is also running a workshop.
A palaeo illustration workshop and that’s happening at Kronosaurus Korner as well in Richmond So worth checking that one out There is stuff happening at the Queensland Museum and of course, world famous palaeontologist Dean Lomax is coming to Australia Dean is
particularly known for his work on ichthyosaurs, those marine reptiles, and here he’s very keen to get his hand on some of Australia’s own marine reptiles, particularly those ones up there in Richmond, but he is flying all over the state as part of Queensland Dino Week, so look out for Dean at…
at Richmond, at Winton, at the Queensland Museum. He’s going to be all over the place. And also Scott Hocknull a legend of Australian palaeontology will also be presenting, at various places around the state for Queensland Dino Week. Scott’s affiliated with Central Queensland University or CQU. He will also be at Queensland Museum. He’s presenting at Mount Morgan out in the West. He’s presenting at Eromanga as well. So yeah, again, all
over the state and there’s so many events out there. You know, people need to jump on the website, dinosaurexperiences.com Check out what’s happening for Queensland Dino Weekend. For the first one, I think it’s a pretty impressive program. I look forward to seeing what they come up with next.
Alyssa (45:41)
Given how expansive the dinosaur bearing deposits in Queensland really are I mean they are so widespread and we get so much good stuff out of them like I think a regional event as opposed to one that they have to go all the way to a city for makes a huge difference and it also allows people who are local to those lands to know better what they’re looking for like there’s a preparatory little course you can do where you learn how people prep this stuff out and what it looks like I think all of that’s really good knowledge for you to have if you’re in Queensland and this stuff is in your backyard or you’ve ever
just wondered what is Queensland Museum get up to? Wonder no more and find out with Scott and Dean and a variety of other lovely people on your Queensland Dino Week road trip.
Travis (46:21)
I just want to say as well, we often hear from, podcasters and people located in other parts of the world that Australia doesn’t have much going on in dinosaurs. And I think one of our, one of our missions for here for fossils and fiction is to challenge that. I think that the folks across all of these regional museums in Queensland and, particularly through dinosaurexperiences.com, which is their kind of collaborative effort. They’re doing a really great job. And I just want to shout out to Karen.
Alyssa (46:30)
See
Travis (46:48)
at Dinosaur Experiences for setting up these interviews, for bringing all these people together and bringing the whole campaign together and tell people, you know, you might think about going to Lyme Regis in summer for their fossil festival, which is great, but Queensland is actually the next great destination for, for these kinds of experiences. So yeah, come on down to Australia if you’ve not been.
Alyssa (47:10)
Absolutely, and if you’re in Australia, New Zealand, close by countries, and you’re a little bummed about having missed some of big UK events, as Travis is saying, come support something that is more local to our backyard, have a chat with some people that are regional, and find out how we do the palaeo down here, because, you know, it is quite different. Working in the hot, hot deserts of Winton is its own thing, and I’m sure you would love to learn about it if you’re curious about this stuff at all.
Travis (47:37)
If you can’t get here this May, of course, this is going to be the first one and all of these museums are open year round so definitely worth coming to check out. And again, thanks for everyone who chatted to us on fossils and fiction. I hope you’ll stick with us as an audience. Come along for these road trips more in the future. We’ve got plenty more planned for the rest of this year and beyond. So yeah, stick with us. Thanks for listening. And if you want to support the pod, jump onto our merch store and pick up some Scratch and Skitter’s merchandise.
Alyssa (48:05)
Our merch is pretty sick and it was designed by real artist, a local artist, and it’s got a trilobite on it. That’s all the reasons you could possibly want to own it. and the dinosaur, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Of course.
Travis (48:16)
Yeah, the dinosaur of course. See
you next time!
Alyssa (48:21)
Bye!
