Like many Outback areas, the west Queensland town of Roma has been hit hard by the effects of the drought but it hopes a giant dinosaur may bring in more tourists and see local businesses do a roaring trade.
Maranoa Council mayor Robert Loughnan is hoping the town, some 500 kilometres west of Brisbane, will become home to a 15-metre long, four-metre tall 3D Rhoetosaurus dinosaur replica.
According to a report in the Brisbane Times, the mayor has been in discussions with the Queensland Museum to find out if it is feasible to build a life-size replica of the herbivore which lived during the mid-Jurassic period about 170 million years ago.
The area is well known for its dinosaur history, and Rhoetosaurus fossils were found 100 kilometres north of Roma back in 1924.
Cr Loughnan said the dinosaur replica would create awareness that the Roma region was one of the first places for dinosaurs to be found.
“I have spoken to people, in particular those aware of our history, and most people are keen to do something like that, particularly if it is going to help tourism for the broader region,” he said. “All of south-west Queensland has been badly hit by the drought and I think it will be a magnificent supplement to our tourism product.”
The Queensland Museum geosciences senior curator, Dr Scott Hocknull, told the Brisbane Times that the local community was ‘keen’ to have a dinosaur display in Roma.
“We really are well and truly using new technology to bring these dinosaurs back to life … short of having DNA, it is the closest you can get to having a real dinosaur,” he said. “Regional communities have an interest in tourism but it is also a great way of taking people from the city to show them the Outback that is different to what they are normally seeing.”
The process of printing out a dinosaur would require photographs of the skeleton to be fed into a computer to create a 3D model. Dr Hocknull said the staggering 15-metre long dinosaur, which would take about two years to build, could help increase the amount of discoveries made in the area.
“It is a tantalising glimpse of what might still be out there and hopefully more residents in the Maranoa area will be on the lookout,” Dr Hocknull said. “To increase the discoveries we have to increase knowledge on the ground, that is either land holders or tourists.”
* Will a giant dinosaur replica draw you to Roma? What is the most interesting thing you have found as you have taken a walk in Outback areas? Comment below.
We stayed in Roma mid 2015. WE stayed at the showgrounds @ $30 per night, very basic facilities. The showgrounds are a lot further out of town than the caravan park, that has good facilities. We then found the CP fee was only $35 pn I asked the ranger why the showground was so expensive. His answer was the CP sets the charge for here, to make it fair for the CP. If that’s not price fixing what is?