Kronosaurus Korner Dinosaur Museum, Richmond

The Largest Collection of Australian Marine Dinosaur Fossils

It’s fitting that the largest collection of Australia’s marine dinosaur fossils are on display, exactly where they were found. Today, Richmond is around 500km from the closest coastal city, which is Townsville, but over 110 million years ago it was a thriving marine landscape. A vast inland sea – the Eromanga Sea – ran right down the middle of what is now Queensland, including parts of New South Wales and South Australia. This shallow sea was home to a vast array of prehistoric marine creatures, many of which were preserved in the rocks and are still being discovered today. The Kronosaurus queenslandicus skeleton was discovered in 1926 by Ralph Thomas, on a property called Army Downs, which is 48km north of Richmond. Five years later it was collected by a geologist and shipped to the USA, where it is on display at Harvard University.

“This one was not originally on our Dinosaur Trail itinerary, but Ethan really wanted to see it, so we changed our plans to make it happen – and I’m really glad we did. Our whole family are passionate scuba divers, and we love exploring the coral gardens of the Great Barrier Reef, so to see the fossils of the prehistoric creatures that used to roam Australia’s vast inland sea, was awesome. It was super interesting to see the turtle fossils, which very closely resemble the turtle’s we still see today, and the cephalopods reminded us of the nautilus – which when I did a bit of ‘digging’ makes complete sense – because today’s nautilus, are the living ‘survivors’ of the cephalopods. All the fossils at Kronosaurus Korner were really well presented, with excellent information, and the audio-visual presentation was well put together and brought that inland sea to life for us. Honestly, I was expecting to be a bit ‘dinosaured-out’ by the time we got to Richmond, but this was so different to the Age of Dinosaurs and Lark Quarry, and I highly recommend it.” – Julie Johnston

Digging At Dawn For Fossils In Richmond, Outback Queensland

Digging at Dawn is a guided tour provided by the Kronosaurus Korner Museum, where you literally get to dig in the fossil fields, in the hope of finding your own fossil keepsake. It took on a whole new meaning for us, because we were staying at Julia Creek, which is a 1 hour and 40 minute drive from Richmond – so we needed to be up and on the road by 5.45am. Thank god for coffee! The 2-hour tour started at the Kronosaurus Korner Museum, where the curator met us and provided a bit of an overview of the tour, before leading the convoy of participant vehicles out to the fossil fields. Once we were all on site, we were issued with a chisel, hammer and brush, and provided with a brief demonstration on how to use them and set to ‘work’.

Did we enjoy it? Have to say, not really – but lots of other people were having a really good time. It turns out I do like fossicking for treasures, but digging for fossils, not so much. Side note – this is not a reflection on the tour itself, which many participants did really enjoy, it’s just our personal interest wasn’t there. That being said, it is very cool to visit the fossil fields and see the place these marine fossils were being discovered and recovered from, before being taken to the museum for cleaning, preservation and presentation. We did find a small piece of fossilised turtle shell and the lovely guide gifted Ethan a shark tooth fossil.

After the 2 hour Digging at Dawn tour was completed, we returned to the museum for a good look around. In addition to the audio-visual presentation, they had audio sets so you could self-guide around the Museum, pausing to listen to information at any particular displays of interest. Highlights for me included the turtle skeleton and the Platypterygius, which resembled an oversized dolphin but with teeth. The Kronosaurus Korner Museum also had an onsite café and excellent souvenir shop.