Palaeo Pictures Update – July 2022

We’re off and racing!

The last couple of years have been tough on everyone, and Palaeo Pictures is no exception. Hampered in being able to get out and about to do constructive and interesting things, both COVID and a lack of funds has kept us shackled at home with little to do. 

But now it’s time to get out and get going!

With COVID restrictions lifted and an injection of funds from the sale of my home, finally we can knuckle down and get some fossil business done!

First mission was a trip to England on an assignment that needs to remain secret for the time being (but not for very much longer, I promise you!). Then we finally got to go and pick up our little dinosaur from Lightning Ridge. As I type this, I’m in a hotel room in Cobar on my way home from Lightning Ridge and the fossils are in three cardboard boxes looking at me across the room. 

Alas, even this project did not go as planned! Originally we (Dan Taylor and I) were going to go to The Ridge in May this year, but another torrent of rain moved in and threatened to cut us off if we made the two-day trek across the country. So we delayed it until this week – and we still ran into yet another torrent of rain!

Undeterred, we pressed on as the rain closed in the further east we drove. We arrived into a wet and grey Lightning Ridge, a sight I’ve never seen before. The surrounding country was green instead of the more typical oranges and browns and the characteristic blue outback skies were nowhere to be seen. 

The rain was more than an aesthetic letdown upon our arrival in town. There was a very real threat to many of the activities we were planning. Visits to various mines would mean traversing dirt roads that could be too greasy in the wet to safely travel. And all outside activities would be complicated by the fine curtain of rain that descended all around us. 

So, when we met up with our local contact, the wonderful Jenni Brammall from the Australian Opal Centre, it was to replan what could and could not be achieved over the next three days that we intended to be in town. On a personal level, it was great to catch up with Jenni after so many years since my last visit.  We were postgraduate students together under Mike Archer at the University of New South Wales. As we chatted over dinner, we pruned back what we could and could not expect to do. At least the central task of the whole trip, to pick up the fossils of a small dinosaur preserved in opal that Palaeo Pictures was able to secure back in 2019, should still be doable.

Then, next morning, another hurdle was thrown in our path. Jenni tested positive to COVID and would be forced into isolation for the next week. The first thing we did was to secure a couple of RATs and, luckily, both Dan and I tested negative. But, without Jenni to show us around, there was very little that we would be able to do during our stay. The one thing we could do was pick up the dinosaur so we could take it back to Adelaide to start its preparation and study. So that’s what we did, reworking our schedule to stay in town for just one day then heading home.

And that is how I finally got to meet and inspect the little opalised dinosaur! If you’ve been following our social media feeds, you will have some idea of what a thrilling experience this was. An experience that I’ll tell you all about in my next blog!

– Palaeo Paul