The crippling drought that has caused so much despair in large swathes of Outback Australia has indirectly created an unexpected tourism drawcard.
Grey nomads are among those being drawn to western Queensland in search of fossilised artefacts from a time when giant marine creatures swam in the area where graziers now eke out a living on the dry and dusty land.
The drought has meant long grasses and shrubs haven’t been growing and that has left a huge number of previously unnoticed fossils exposed.
Dr Patrick Smith, the curator of the marine fossil museum, Kronosaurus Korner in Richmond, says it isn’t just palaeontologists who haven’t found an upside in what is a very difficult situation.
“Some of the graziers have developed tours that go out to their properties to go out and see these things, and it helps their livelihood,” he told the ABC. “Trying to find these fossils is hard the best of times, and so finding them when there’s little or no grass at all is much easier.”
Dr Smith said four years into the drought discoveries were becoming increasingly common.
“You can find much bigger things, bigger ammonites, bigger Kronosaurus, and that’s because they stand out, as almost as shining beacons, in the sea of rocks,” he said. “It’s made it much easier for tourists to find fossils.”
The fossils tend to find their way to Kronosaurus Korner in Richmond where more than 500 specimens that have been found in the area are put on display, generating a lot of public interest in the properties.
For grey nomads and other visitors who want to uncover their own piece of history, there are free fossil hunting sites approximately 12 kilometres north of Richmond which are accessible to all vehicles. No digging tools are required and fossils found in the area include belemnites, fish jaws and scales, inoceramus shells and shark teeth.
Kronosaurus Korner also runs Digging At Dusk fossil hunting adventures, where palaeontologists teach visitors how to find, identify and excavate 100-million-year-old fossils.
One of the most startling finds in recent times was made by Robert Hacon from Euraba Station, 30 kilometres northwest of Richmond. He was poisoning prickly acacia on his land In 2014 when he discovered part of a Kronosaurus.
“Droughts are tough and we survive,” he told the ABC. “But finding the Kronosaurus, that was the icing on the cake … I still get a kick out of it.”
fossils looking for fossils I guess