Hugh Calvey lives in northern NSW but has become something of a regular in the Outback Queensland town of Winton, which he visits a couple of times together with a bunch of friends.
They happily do a voluntary stint in the laboratory of the town’s most famous attraction, the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum, which has quickly become a landmark and is a genuinely significant tourism site on a national scale.
Most of the work that they do is painstaking, indeed tedious. It involves sitting at a bench and using an apparatus similar to a dentist’s drill to slowly — very carefully and very slowly — peel away of layers of rock from potentially important fossils.
One slip may destroy part of that fossil, perhaps a major link in our connection with a time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. The rewards include being the first human to view that chunk of pre-history.
We’ve been introduced to Hugh by Grace Elliott, one of the facility’s most enthusiastic and proficient guides — and also the proud holder of an award as one of the state’s Young Tourism Leaders.
Her current job as one of the museum’s senior tour guides is a far cry from growing up on a sheep-and-cattle station and doing part of her education through the School of the Air, but I’m sure that the enthusiasm and proficiency will win out.
The museum had its beginnings just a few years ago in 1999, when local grazier David Elliott — yes, he’s related to Grace via his grandfather’s cousin, but “there are lots of Elliotts in the phone book here” — uncovered the giant femur from a fossilised sauropod, which had roamed the area 95 million years ago.
The beast was at the time the largest dinosaur discovered in Australia, and to say it stirred quite a bit of local, national and international interest would definitely be an understatement.
A few years later, David and his wife Judy had sparked enough local interest to start the museum — and the rest, as they say, is history, in this case a mix of very ancient and very modern history.
Since 1999, about 17 pallets of fossil bones have been found in the area. Most of them have been stored and are still awaiting the loving touch of volunteers such as Hugh Calvey.
Some 20 years later, the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum is an ever-expanding treat.
One of its most recent additions is Dinosaur Canyon, a lengthy but rewarding trek along an easily negotiated boardwalk through spectacular fields of re-created dinosaurs along the perimeter of the Jump Ups, a low range which as made the dinosaur thing all possible.
We were given a fine tour of Dinosaur Canyon by Tom Beeston, who seems — and is — a typical wide-brimmed-hatted Australian bush lad, but one who is an essential part of a fresh Down-Under experience.
The museum is located about 25 kilometres south-east of Winton, but please don’t make the mistake of ignoring Winton itself, which would be quite easy to dismiss as just another Australian country town.
I certainly regret not having been able to spend more time exploring it.
It’s quite a charmer, with some gracious old pubs in the main street, especially the very substantial North Gregory.
It’s also the home of what is claimed to be the world’s only museum dedicated to a single song.
The original Waltzing Matilda Centre was tragically destroyed by fire in June 2015 and in its new very modern guise was due to reopen shortly after my recent visit.
Right in the centre of the main street is the historic century-old Royal Theatre, which still offers an opportunity to view movies sitting in canvas seats under the stars.
The foyer and nearby café hold a host of memorabilia and the townfolk of Winton obviously put considerable effort into preserving the theatre’s historic status and are extremely aware of the industry’s potential to keep the town prosperous.
John Rozentals was a guest of Tourism and Events Queensland.
