Dinosaurs & Fossils in Outback Queensland

The Australian Age of Dinosaurs, Winton

The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History is the single most important dinosaur attraction in the country, and it exists because a Winton grazier named David Elliott found a bone while mustering sheep in 1999. The museum he helped found in 2002 now holds the world's largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils and runs the most productive fossil preparation laboratory in the southern hemisphere.

It sits about 24 kilometres south-east of Winton on top of a flat-topped mesa called The Jump-Up, reached on a sealed road off the Landsborough Highway. The setting does half the work: 360-degree views across Mitchell grass plains that were, in the Cretaceous, a vast forested floodplain fringing an inland sea.

What you actually see

• The Fossil Preparation Laboratory. Not a re-creation — a working lab where technicians and volunteers chip 95-million-year-old bone out of rock with pneumatic tools. You watch it happen through the glass, and the guides explain what is on the bench that week.
• The Collection Room. Holotype specimens — the reference skeletons against which every later find of that species is judged. The museum holds the holotypes of Diamantinasaurus, Savannasaurus and Australovenator (Australia's most complete theropod), plus Ferrodraco, a pterosaur, and Confractosuchus, a crocodile found with a dinosaur in its gut.
• March of the Titanosaurs. A 900-square-metre building constructed over Australia's best-preserved sauropod trackway — a 54-metre slab lifted from a property near Winton, recording sauropods, small mammals, turtles and crocodiles crossing the same ground.
• Dinosaur Canyon. An elevated walkway along the edge of the mesa with life-sized bronze dinosaurs and pterosaurs set in habitat dioramas, plus interpretive signage and long views over the plains.
• Gondwana Stars Observatory. A meteorite-shaped observatory running evening deep-time astronomy tours — covered in detail on our Outback Queensland stargazing guide.

Lark Quarry & the Dinosaur Stampede

The Dinosaur Stampede National Monument at Lark Quarry Conservation Park, 110 kilometres south-west of Winton, protects one of the most remarkable trackways on Earth: roughly 3,300 fossilised footprints crowded onto a single rock surface, laid down about 95 million years ago on the muddy margin of a river channel.

For decades the standard reading was dramatic — a large carnivorous theropod charging a mixed herd of small two-legged dinosaurs, which scattered in panic. That interpretation inspired a scene in Jurassic Park. It has also been seriously challenged. Later analysis of the track shapes and directions suggested that at least some of the animals may have been crossing or swimming a river rather than fleeing, and that the large tracks might belong to a plant-eater rather than a predator. The site guides handle this openly, and it makes for a far more interesting visit than a settled story would.

Visiting Lark Quarry

• Guided tour only. The trackways sit inside a climate-controlled conservation building and can only be seen on a ranger-guided tour, which runs about 45 minutes and carries a fee. Tour times are reduced over summer.
• The park itself is free. Entry to the conservation park, the visitor information centre and the two walking tracks costs nothing. The Spinifex Circuit is a short self-guided walk to a lookout over Mitchell grass downs framed by red jump-ups — worth doing even if you have already seen the trackways.
• Getting there. The road from Winton is partly sealed and partly unsealed. In dry conditions a conventional vehicle is fine; after rain the unsealed section can close without warning. Check road conditions on 13 19 40 before leaving town.
• Be self-sufficient. This is semi-remote country and rangers may not be on site. Carry water, fuel and a spare tyre. There is no fuel between Winton and Lark Quarry.

Many visitors combine Lark Quarry with Carisbrooke Station and the Three Sisters mesas on the return leg, turning it into a full-day loop out of Winton.

Australia’s Dinosaur Trail: Winton, Hughenden, Richmond

Australia's Dinosaur Trail links three outback towns, each holding a different chapter of the same story. Winton has the great land dinosaurs of the Cretaceous floodplain. Richmond has the marine reptiles that swam the Eromanga Sea above it. Hughenden sits between the two, with a fossil record that spans both worlds.

The whole loop is sealed, which matters more than it sounds: it means caravans, motorhomes, hire cars and touring coaches can all do it comfortably. Hughenden and Richmond sit on the Overlanders Way between Townsville and Mount Isa, so the trail slots neatly into a longer cross-country drive.

Richmond — Kronosaurus Korner

Richmond holds Australia's premier marine fossil collection, drawn from the inland sea that covered this country roughly 110 million years ago. The star is Penny, the Richmond Pliosaur — Australia's most complete marine vertebrate fossil — alongside rare ancient swordfish and the museum's namesake Kronosaurus. A self-guided audio tour lets you move at your own pace, and there are free public fossicking sites nearby where you can hunt the old seabed yourself.

Hughenden — Flinders Discovery Centre

Hughenden is home to Hughie, a full skeletal reconstruction of Muttaburrasaurus langdoni, one of the most complete dinosaurs ever found in Australia and a genuine icon of Australian palaeontology. The Flinders Discovery Centre pairs the fossil collection with a light and sound show introducing nearby Porcupine Gorge, and a series of metal dinosaur sculptures by local artists is scattered through the streets.

Winton — the land giants

Winton closes the loop with the Age of Dinosaurs and Lark Quarry, plus the boulder opal country that produced many of the region's fossils in the first place. It is also a certified International Dark Sky Community, which makes it the natural place to spend two or three nights rather than one.

Eromanga & Australia’s Largest Dinosaur

Far to the south-west, Eromanga — a town that bills itself as the furthest point in Australia from the sea — is home to the largest dinosaur species ever described from this continent.

Australotitan cooperensis, universally known as Cooper, is a titanosaurian sauropod estimated at 25 to 30 metres long. The bones were found on a family property in 2006 and took fifteen years of excavation, preparation and comparison before the species was formally named in 2021 — a reminder that palaeontology moves at the speed of careful work, not headlines.

The Eromanga Natural History Museum displays real fossil material rather than casts wherever possible, and visitors can see preparation work under way. It sits well off the Winton–Hughenden–Richmond triangle, roughly 100 kilometres west of Quilpie, so it usually pairs with a south-western itinerary taking in the boulder opal fields and Charleville rather than with the northern trail.

Riversleigh: World Heritage Fossils

Queensland's other great fossil site is not about dinosaurs at all, and it is World Heritage listed.

The Riversleigh World Heritage Area, in the southern section of Boodjamulla National Park (Aboriginal Land) in the state's north-west, preserves an extraordinary record of Australian mammal evolution from between about 15 and 25 million years ago — long after the dinosaurs, and from a time when this arid country was lush rainforest. Marsupial lions, giant flightless birds, ancestral koalas, marsupial moles and feather-tailed possums have all been recovered from its limestone. Riversleigh was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1994 as part of the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites, jointly with Naracoorte in South Australia, and it is routinely ranked among the ten most significant fossil sites in the world.

Visitors can walk the free, self-guided Riversleigh fossil trail at D-Site, where fossils are visible in the rock, with interpretive displays explaining what you are looking at. The Waanyi people are the Traditional Owners of Boodjamulla and co-manage the park; visitors are asked to travel lightly and respect the Country.

Two practical points matter. Riversleigh is remote — 156 kilometres north of the Barkly Highway and 55 kilometres south-east of Lawn Hill Gorge — and Boodjamulla closes for the wet season, typically from mid-December until around early April. Our national parks and nature guide covers the park in more depth.

Joining a Dig & Collecting Rules

Outback Queensland is one of the few places in the world where members of the public can genuinely contribute to palaeontological work. Several programs take non-specialists:

• Australian Age of Dinosaurs runs annual dinosaur digs in the Winton Formation, plus long-running volunteer programs in the preparation laboratory. Places are limited and go early.
• Kronosaurus Korner, Richmond offers hosted fossil digs at designated sites, with staff identifying what you find afterwards.
• Eromanga Natural History Museum takes volunteers in its fossil labs.
• Richmond's free public fossicking sites let you search the old seabed independently and bring finds in for identification.

The rules, plainly

Fossicking in Queensland is a regulated activity. A fossicking licence is legally required for designated fossicking areas, hand tools only are permitted, and inspectors do check. There are five licence types, and one detail catches people out: a commercial tour operator licence does not authorise fossicking for fossil specimens. Children under 16 are covered by an accompanying licensed adult; from 16 they need their own.

Vertebrate fossils — dinosaur bone, marine reptiles — are a separate matter again and are protected. If you find something significant on a property or a road cutting, the right move is to photograph it, note the location, leave it in place and report it to one of the museums above. Several of the region's most important specimens, Cooper included, reached science exactly that way.

Planning a Dinosaur Trip: Distances, Seasons & Passes

When to go

April to October, without much argument. Daytime temperatures sit in a comfortable range, roads are at their most reliable, and attractions run full timetables. Summer in this country regularly exceeds 40°C, tour schedules shorten, some sites close on Sundays, and unsealed access roads flood. Our best time to visit guide goes into the seasonal detail.

Passes and bundling

An Australian Dinosaur Trail Pass bundles admission across the major attractions — typically the Australian Age of Dinosaurs, the Dinosaur Stampede at Lark Quarry, Kronosaurus Korner at Richmond and the Flinders Discovery Centre at Hughenden. If you are doing three or more, it is worth the arithmetic.

Getting there without your own car

The Inlander rail service runs twice weekly between Townsville and Mount Isa, stopping at both Hughenden and Richmond. The Spirit of the Outback runs Brisbane to Longreach, which puts you within a two-hour drive of Winton. Coach services connect Brisbane to Winton and Townsville to Hughenden and Richmond. For most visitors, though, the practical choice is either a hire car from Longreach or Mount Isa, or an escorted coach tour that removes the driving entirely.

How long you actually need

1. Three days. Winton only — Age of Dinosaurs on day one, Lark Quarry on day two, town and dark skies on day three.
2. Five days. The full Dinosaur Trail loop through Hughenden and Richmond, with Porcupine Gorge added north of Hughenden.
3. Seven to ten days. Trail plus Longreach's aviation and pastoral museums, or trail plus a southern swing to Eromanga and the opal country.

Don’t Miss

More Things to Do in Outback Queensland

Outback Queensland rewards travellers who mix their interests. Pair fossils with dark skies, or heritage with a festival weekend — each guide below covers a different side of the region.