Australian Age of Dinosaurs

About

Australian Age of Dinosaurs Ltd. (AAOD) is a nonprofit organization located in Winton, Queensland, founded by David Elliott and Judy Elliott in 2002. The organization’s activities include the operation of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, which holds annual dinosaur digs in the Winton Formation of Western Queensland and oversees the year-round operation of Australia's most productive dinosaur fossil preparation laboratory. Since 2005, the AAOD Museum has accumulated the largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils in the world and holds the holotype specimens of Diamantinasaurus matildae, Savannasaurus elliottorum, Australovenator wintonensis, Australia's most complete theropod skeleton, Ferrodraco lentoni, the first pterosaur to be named from the Winton Formation, and Confractosuchus sauroktonos. The museum is open to the public daily from April to October and is open six days a week (closed Sundays) from November to March. The site of the museum was designated a dark-sky preserve, the first International Dark-Sky Sanctuary in Australia, in 2019.

The AAOD Museum is located on top of a large mesa named 'The Jump-Up', which is 24 km south-east of Winton and 600 km south-west of Townsville. Visitors traveling from Longreach drive northwest along the Landsborough Highway for approximately 164 km before turning left onto Dinosaur Drive. From the highway, it is a further 11 km to the museum on a sealed road. Caravans can be towed to the top of the jump-up, although the museum has provided an unhitching area at the base of the mesa for visitors towing a caravan with a small 2WD vehicle.

In 1999, David Elliott discovered the fossilized bone of what was, at the time, Australia's largest dinosaur while mustering sheep on his property in Belmont, near Winton. This bone was later identified as part of a giant femur from a Cretaceous sauropod that roamed the Winton area 95 million years ago. Following the discovery of more fossils during digs held in conjunction with the Queensland Museum, David Elliott and Judy Elliott called a public meeting in Winton on August 17, 2002, in view of establishing a dinosaur museum at Winton.

In October 2002, Australian Age of Dinosaurs Incorporated commenced operations as a not-for-profit organization aimed at ensuring future dinosaur digs and the preparation and conservation of dinosaur fossils from the Winton Formation could continue. The organization, with support from a strong member's volunteer base, began the initial stages of developing a major tourism attraction in the form of a dinosaur museum so that the discoveries could be preserved for perpetuity and be available to the public. While mustering sheep in March 2005, David Elliott discovered a new dinosaur site on Belmont, and a subsequent dig in September uncovered the remains of one of Australia's most complete sauropod skeletons. A total of 17 pallets of fossil bones trapped in a fine siltstone rock were recovered and stored in the Belmont shed. The dinosaur was nicknamed "Wade" in posthumous honor of Australian paleontologist Dr. Mary Wade, who died during the dig.

In late 2005, the discovery of a partial sauropod humerus on Elderslie Station, near Winton, led to a series of digs held by the AAOD Museum and the recovery of two dinosaur skeletons preserved together, one being a sauropod skeleton and the other a theropod. The sauropod was nicknamed "Matilda," and the theropod was nicknamed "Banjo," both in honor of Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson and his classic poem " Waltzing Matilda."

In mid-2006, David and Judy Elliott opened an "Australian Age of Dinosaurs" temporary fossil preparation facility in their shed at Belmont, which was known locally as the "Prep Shed." It was here that fossil preparation was carried out by a small group of staff preparators and volunteers who were accommodated in the station's Jackeroo and Shearers Quarters. Work commenced on Wade and expanded to include the bones of "Banjo" and "Matilda" as each dig produced further fossils. This work continued for almost three years and incorporated the help of over 100 volunteers. It was during this time that the 'Free Wade' project began, supported by an Australian Geographic fundraiser and private donations from numerous volunteers, members, and supporters.

In September 2006, Peter Britton and Carol Britton, owners of Mt. Landsborough Station near Winton, donated 1,400 hectares of mesa, or "Jump-Up" country, to AAOD as a site for the future museum. Over the following three years, funding was raised from Desert Channels Queensland to enable the new site to be fenced. The Winton Shire Council built a new gravel road to the top of the Jump-Up, and the Queensland Government contributed $500,000 toward a fossil preparation facility, staff cottages, and water and power amenities. The prep shed at Belmont was closed, and all fossils and equipment were relocated to the jump-up in early 2009. The new facilities were opened to the public in July 2009 by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh as part of Queensland's 150th year (Q 150) celebrations.

AAOD Inc. was restructured in June 2008 to become a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee with a board of up to nine directors. The new company, Australian Age of Dinosaurs Ltd. (AAODL), created a Society of Members (Australian Age of Dinosaurs Society) to carry on the support-based work of AAOD Inc. with levels of membership including ordinary members and life members, known as "Million Year Members." The museum's patron is Dame Quentin Bryce.

On 25 January 2024 David Elliott was named Australia’s Local Hero by the Prime Minister, The Hon Anthony Albanese MP, for reviving palaeotourism in Australia.

The construction of the AAOD Museum is divided into three stages, with each stage occupying a different area of the Jump-Up. Construction of Stage 1, which includes a temporary fossil preparation building, two staff cottages, and volunteer accommodation facilities, is now complete, as is Stage 2, which consists of the reception center for the AAOD Museum and a public car park. Stage 3, which is the future site of the AAOD Museum of Natural History, has completed its concept planning phase, and the initial construction of outdoor galleries has commenced. The AAOD Museum of Natural History has not yet been funded for construction.

The laboratory is located approximately 500m from the reception center and performs all the preparation, preservation, and restoration work necessary to enable the dinosaur fossils to be scientifically studied and put on exhibition. This building is divided into unprepared fossil storage, prepared fossil storage, and a large preparation area where staff and volunteers work on removing rock from the bones and consolidating them. A staff room, office, visitor waiting room, and equipment storage area are also housed within this facility.

As dinosaur fossils are usually preserved in solid-rock boulders or covered in thick bands of ironstone matrix, it is often a long and time-consuming task to chisel the rock away. Work undertaken at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Laboratory includes mechanical preparation of the bones with pneumatic scribes, which remove rock from the bones. Other activities include restoration, repairs, consolidation of specimens, sieving, sorting of matrix for microfossils, and 'jig-saw puzzling' bone fragments together.

The laboratory encourages people to help with this preparation by becoming an honorary technician, which entails a 10-day fossil preparation course at the museum known as 'Prep-A-Dino'.

The reception center was built on $1 million in funding provided by the Australian government with $50,000 in funding from the Queensland government, and pro-bono support from the Winton Shire Council and several corporations. The building was designed by Cox Rayner Architects as a pro-bono contribution to the AAOD Project and built by Woollam Constructions in 2011. It was opened by the Federal Minister for Regional Australia, Simon Crean, on April 8, 2012. Designed to blend into the surrounding Jump-Up Rock, the building takes on the earthy hues and textures of the surrounding landscape. The concrete walls of the building were colored and stamped with latex mats that were molded from the rock surface of the Jump-Up Rock by the Elliott Family. A large contingent of volunteers contributed to the final aesthetic finishes of the building, including corten steel panels and landscaping.

The reception center contains a shop, café, and staff facilities, as well as a fossil holotype room known as the Collection Room. The building has won several awards for architecture, including the J. W. Wilson Award for 'Building of the Year' in central Queensland; the Queensland 'State Award for Public Architecture'; the 'Walls' category of the Queensland 'Public Domain Awards 2013'; and the Kevin Cavanagh Medal, the Concrete Institute of Australia's highest national award for 'Excellence in Concrete'. It was also shortlisted in the 'Culture' category of the World Architecture Festival Awards in 2012 and again in 2013 under the 'Display' category.

A life-sized, 5-meter-long bronze statue of Australovenator ("Banjo") stands at the entrance to the reception center. Digitally sculpted by AAOD palaeo-artist Travis R. Tischler, the statue was cast by Deep in the Heart Foundry, Texas, USA. It was funded by the John Villiers Trust and erected in front of the reception center in April 2012.

The Collections Room inside the Reception Center is a climate-controlled room that houses the museum's holotype and paratype fossil specimens. The specimens are displayed in a semi-circle around a public stage where visitors can view the fossils as part of daily guided tours run by the museum. The holotype fossil bones of Australia's most complete sauropod dinosaurs, Diamantinasaurus matildae ("Matilda") and Savannasaurus elliottorum ("Wade"), as well as the most complete theropod dinosaur, Australovenator wintonensis ("Banjo"), and the most complete pterosaur, "Ferrodraco lentoni" ("Butch"), are on display. The Collection Room is fitted with audiovisual equipment that complements the guided tours by showing animation footage of western Queensland's dinosaurs. This footage consists of excerpts from the documentary Monsters in the Outback, which was produced for the museum by Bearcage Studios in 2013 through funding provided to AAOD by BHP.

Dinosaur Canyon Outpost and Outdoor Galleries

Dinosaur Canyon Outpost and Outdoor Galleries were finished in April 2017 through a combination of government funds, private sponsorship and the museum's contributions from operating funds. The new attraction consists of an Outpost perched on the cliff overlooking Dinosaur Canyon and includes 300 metres of elevated concrete pathway throughout the gorge below. Five outdoor galleries are positioned along the pathway, which resembles a treetop walk as it winds through massive boulders and thick vegetation below the rim of a gorge. The Dinosaur Canyon exhibits recreate life as it would have appeared during the Cretaceous Period, including Dinosaur Stampede, Pterodactylus Family, Kunbarrasaurus ieversi, Death in the Billabong and Valley of the Cycads.

The March of the Titanosaurs exhibition was finished in May 2021 as part of the Dynamic Destination project, funded through the Growing Tourism Infrastructure Fund. The building was built to house a 55m long tracksite relocated to The Jump-Up from 2018 to 2021. The tracksite features trace fossils of sauropods, theropods, ornithopods, crocodiles, turtles and lungfish.