Dinosaurs looking for a new home

From the Herald Sun: Dinosaurs looking for a new home
FEDERAL MP Darren Cheeseman wants the stories of Otway Ranges dinosaurs enshrined in a multi million-dollar museum on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.

Otway Dinosaurs' Wildlife of Gondwana has occupied a temporary home 3km north-west of Apollo Bay but is in the process of mapping its future after acclaimed international tours, the Geelong Advertiser reports.

New site options include a 28 ha parcel of land close to the Great Ocean Road and Dinosaur Cove, where finds of dinosaur remains have revealed previously untold stories of life in the former Gondwana land.

"Dinosaur Cove is the right place to put it, where the fossils were first found," Mr Cheeseman said.

"It could be done sensitively, it could be done in a way with accommodation on site, tucked away in gum trees as it were.

"It would very much add to the rich tapestry of tourist attractions down there."

Deb Moore and Greg Denney are co-owners of the 300-exhibit museum, backed by Monash Science Centre, and will meet Mr Cheeseman for talks this week.

Mr Cheeseman estimated a new museum near the cove might cost tens of millions of dollars.

"You wouldn't do it cheaply, and you wouldn't want to do it cheaply," he said.

Ms Moore said plans were only beginning to come together but the focus would be clear.

"This stands for scientific and environmental integrity," Ms Moore said.

"We don't want some sort of dinosaur theme park and the Great Ocean Road turning into Queensland.

"We have to maintain the science."

Entire new breeds of dinosaurs have been identified from fossil finds at Dinosaur Cove, near Johanna, since the 1980s, including the leaellynasaura, which adapted to Gondwana's polar conditions.

Ms Moore said the existing exhibit occupied 500sqm in "what is really a big farm shed".

"Staying where we are is not an option, it's not ideal a little bit out of Apollo Bay and we're not even on a direct route off the Great Ocean Road," she said.

The exhibit is scheduled to be shipped to Moscow in April.