Otways 2009

A great time was had at the Otways last week with about 30 new participants as well as the inevitable core crew.

We camped "under the Koalas" at Bimbi Park:

Gerry puts some newbies through "rock training".

We had a fun time in the sun and wind and rain at site:

We played with the new drill:

Our new chairs were very popular!

We washed rocks:

We measured the rocks:

Alan drew a map of the rocks on site:

We found a fossil in the shore platform that we'd walked over for days:

I believe the fossils we found were unwrapped at the Museum yesterday.

Even Sasha found a bone!

Field Report Presentation

Yesterday we presented the 2009 Field Report to the Friends of Dinosaur Dreaming and the Dino Dreaming crew.

Lesley talked about some of the finds this season, Dr Tom Rich talked about the latest research, John talked about field techniques Dave showed us some cool new images and Mike talked about his finds on other parts of the Bass Coast.

We had a great new venue this year - The Age Theatrette at the Melbourne Museum

Friends' update

We are almost all ready for the Friends of Dinosaur Dreaming presentation next weekend. We are almost 100% sure we'll have the 2009 Field Reports ready to take home on the day.
For those of you not yet friends, you can join at http://www.sciencecentre.monash.edu.au/dinodream/friends/index.html.

2010 Volunteers

We have begun the process of selecting the volunteers for the 2010 dig. We have received a record number of applications and are having a difficult time selecting only those that will fit into the house.

Here we see John describing the on-site work.

2009 Field Report

Work is continuing on the 2009 Field Report. It should be available to Friends of Dinosaur Dreaming by the end of October. We've decided that the number of fossils we've found have outgrown our old maps, so make sure you check out the new ones this year.

Megafauna in the Portland area

Once again, Dave led a small band of volunteers seeking out megafauna in remote corners of Victoria.

There were lots of stairs.

Dave explains our plans to Ranger Don.

Sean (a Portland area expert in shark fossils) shares his local knowledge with the team.

We look high and we look low.

Sometimes we stood back and looked at the specatular coastline.

Digging out the fossils from a rock was a bit harder than expected.

Working on the 2009 Field Report

We have now begun working on the 2009 Field Report. Friends of Dinosaur Dreaming should expect theirs around October. For those not yet friends, it's not too late to join at http://www.sciencecentre.monash.edu.au/dinodream/friends/index.html.