Alive and Well

The landscape of western Queensland is dramatic. After a good wet season, Mitchell grass grows thickly on the vast plains. Elsewhere the land is stony and dotted with clumps of hardy spinifex. But if you’d travelled this way 95 million years ago, the scenery would have been very different. In the Mid-Cretaceous period forests of conifers, lush ferns and flowering plants covered the land, watered by rivers and streams which flowed into a huge inland sea. And it was inhabited by dinosaurs! 

In August 2022, we followed the Dinosaur Trail through western Queensland, on a route from Winton to Richmond, Hughenden and Muttaburra, all locations where dinosaur fossils have been discovered. Put your Australian Dinosaur Trail Pass in your pocket and join us on a journey back in time to the land of the dinosaurs. 

Julia Creek

Visitors to Australia are familiar with our most dangerous creatures: crocodiles, snakes and spiders. Not many will have heard of a lesser known but equally fearsome animal which lives in the arid country around Julia Creek. Fearsome, that is, if you belong to this group of animals!

Julia Creek dunnarts, long thought to be extinct, are alive and well in north-west Queensland. They’re elusive little creatures, not often seen in the wild, but the Julia Creek Visitor Information Centre has a small population of dunnarts on display in carefully regulated enclosures. 

Also known as fat-tailed dunnarts, these cute little animals have two unique characteristics which ensure their survival during droughts.

As well as being feisty and tough, dunnarts are speedy. This little fellow moved constantly around the enclosure, searching for the mealworms his carer had placed inside. He was far more interested in finding his lunch than posing for photographs. 

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