A special tribute to Outback’s history
An incredible up-close look at when dinosaurs roamed Winton
PASSION and persistence can be incredibly powerful.
Trish Sloan is proving that by carving out a career and establishing herself in Outback Queensland.
From coffee maker to virtually running the show, she has found her direction in life.
Her enthusiasm for the sense of discovery has been matched by the encouragement from The Age of Dinosaurs Museum founder David Elliott to go on and become operations director at the distinctive natural history landmark.
In doing so, Ms Sloan has been able to establish herself in Winton.
Like others working at the world-renowned museum just south of the town, she has been able to buy a house and grow with her role.
I met up with Ms Sloan in the museum laboratory perched on top of the jump-up site – 1801ha of freehold land rising dramatically out of the landscape.
She says soon after starting at the museum she became so excited about the processes of discovery.
Her natural enthusiasm took hold and the dinosaur culture did the rest. Now it is at a stage where the public can experience and share the same excitement. And it has reignited interest in the Outback, giving hope for the towns that have been so dependent on the sheep and cattle industries and the vagaries of the weather.
Her endeavour has allowed Ms Sloan to invest in the lifestyle and further her career by training to be a Savannah Guide, protectors and interpreters of the tropical savannahs of Australia.
Her holiday was spent in Africa, learning more about the guiding side of things.
She embraced the opportunity Mr Elliott provided and he recognised Ms Sloan’s dedication.
The Age of Dinosaurs Museum is predominantly a 75m-high mesa that provides a natural flat-top plateau 7km long and 2km wide, a wilderness area surrounded by steep cliffs, massive boulders and deep gorges. Walking trails, stunning views and an abundance of natural flora and fauna make it an outstanding destination in itself.
There is a new sealed road leading in the 11km from the highway to the site where dinosaurs roamed millions of years ago.
Ms Sloan tells me about the changes that have taken place at this facility in the past couple of years, one that is dedicated to finding, cataloguing and restoring the incredible collection of bones and fossils found in the area.
As well as expansion of the museum/laboratory, the first steps have been taken in the construction of the
$30 million stage three of the site.
The 6000sq m building will be modelled on the same red rock and rust themes of the reception centre, with jagged landforms and vivid earth textures marrying the invincible colours of deep time with the luxury and beauty of a modern, world-class building.
The building is to be completed by 2020.
Yet something new is happening each day at one of the greatest concentrations of these creatures you will find on Earth.
Mr Elliott knew two things when he saw a funny bone in a paddock in 1999, the femur of a dinosaur.
Being a third-generation sheep and cattle farmer from the Winton area, he knew the
soil. And he knew he had found something big, in more ways than simply the size of the bones.
At present a visit to the museum includes tours of the information/display centre and the museum/restoration laboratory.
Stage three will comprise a working dinosaur museum facility with preparation laboratory, collection and type room facilities, classrooms, theatres and comprehensive displays.
A dinosaur canyon has been constructed, incorporating outdoor galleries and life-size bronze dinosaurs scattered throughout the gorge that sits below the site of the future building.
This is the biggest single step the project will take and it includes the development of comprehensive education programs, teacher development courses,
overseas study tours and scientific research programs.
“We have run out of room so we are expanding into the carpark,” Ms Sloan said.
“It’s the start of evolving the laboratory a bit more. It will allow us to do heavier work.
“Once the bones are dug up they need to consolidate it, put the bone into a hard case casting to keep it protected and ready for preparation.
“It’s a very slow process. The bones rule the lab, we don’t.”
The museum is Australia’s largest fossil preparation facility and has operated since July 2006.
It provides an introduction to what we have been walking over for so long, a history of the area dating back
93 million years to when Winton was on the edge of a great inland sea and dinosaurs roamed freely.
The new display centres
around a dinosaur cast about 4m long taken from a site dig last year. It includes nearly a full vertebrae of a dinosaur the museum has named Judy.
“I believe this is the most complete in our collection,” Ms Sloan said.
“Judy was uncovered in May-June. We went back in August and discovered the other shoulder bone, shin bones, femur and rib.
“The cast is 4m long and contains nine–10 vertebrae.”
The next item Ms Sloan shows me, among the remains of a fossilised tree dating back 93 million years, assorted shellfish and fossilise plant life, is a meteor that came to Earth in 2004.
“I was driving into Winton,’’ she recalled, “and it lit up night sky.
“There was an explosion, it went from bright to dull.
“I got into Winton and everyone asked if I’d seen it.
“I sure did.”
Ms Sloan became affiliated with the museum by being part of the dig team. She started as a rock guide, telling people about the geology of the area but not dinosaurs. That was at the Lark Quarry site, about 110km southwest of Winton.
Lark Quarry sprang to international prominence when a ringer from Cork Station found some unusual tracks found embedded in rocks at Happy Valley Station. The first imprint was not much bigger than a bird. Yet the most exciting find was yet to come.
It was at Seymour Quarry and came about by accident while fossikers were looking for opals.
Instead they found the tracks of prehistoric mammals and dinosaurs. Scientists followed the gullies and luckily found the stampede – a track wave of 3300 prints. The most concentrated collection of footprints in the world.
What caused the stampede ranges in thought from the smaller dinosaurs escaping from a larger predator to panic caused by a major climatic event. Was it a flood, volcano or meteorite shower?
Whatever the cause, the footprints were preserved intact under layers of sandstone.
Reading about the find and understanding the impact became an addiction for Ms Sloan. Even on her holidays she will be undergoing environmental training in order to incorporate nature tours at the museum.
In the main season from April to September there are about 26 employees on site and 14 are guides.
The museum runs volunteer programs such as Prep a Dino, a specific course that involves 10 days of training to see where they specialise.
Volunteers can be part of a dig program as well.
“It’s held once a year but is hard yakka, with a lot of digging with shovels,” she said.
“Prep is the discovery part.” At that stage of the tour Grace Elliott steps in and takes me off in an electricpowered vehicle for a tour of the new dinosaur canyon.
Everything in the dinosaur canyon is life-sized in a true reconstruction of the creatures found in the Winton area. There are huge dinosaurs as well as the cute and cuddly.
The museum is to be constructed nearby. It will be the gateway to the dinosaur canyon. Already the carefully graded boardwalk through the canyon accommodates wheelchairs, buggies, the lot.
“We do not say ‘no’ to anyone,” Ms Sloan explained.
“We’ve had a great response. The views alone are worth the effort. The canyon brings a third element of seeing things in a natural setting.
“This year has been the busiest ever – almost 30,000 visitors. During the school holidays we had 350 a day.
“It’s a bushwalk back in time.”