Grey nomads will find even more prehistoric action on Queensland’s dinosaur trail thanks to new funding to build a dinosaur museum in the state’s south-west.
The Eromanga Natural History Museum has been on the drawing board for years, but $500,000 in new Queensland State Government funding means it can now go ahead.
Quilpie Shire Council Mayor Stuart Mackenzie says construction is now due to start within months and the facility, which will open next year, will have real economic benefits for the region.
“There will obviously be a tourism benefit and that will be very immediate,” he told the ABC. “The Outback Gondwana Foundation is employing seven people now and that is with not one tourist visiting, so it obviously is going to provide some local employment as well.”
The region is one of the richest dinosaur fields in Australia and home to the nation’s largest dinosaur ‘Cooper’.
It is 10 years since the first discovery in the region and a dinosaur dig is currently taking place in the area.
“We can now bring it to the public, bring everything that we have found here over the last 10 years,” said Cr Mackenzie.
* Are you ready to walk with dinosaurs? Have you been on the prehistoric ‘detour’? Would you recommend it? Comment below.
