The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum and Queensland Museum have announced some new dinosaur finds — and these are big ones: New Dinosaurs!

WINTON: Premier Anna Bligh today announced the discovery of three new species of Australian dinosaur discovered in a prehistoric billabong in Western Queensland. …

“The dinosaurs have been nicknamed after characters created by poet Banjo Paterson who is said to have written Waltzing Matilda in Winton in 1885,” she said.  

“Banjo (carnivorous theropod) and Matilda and Clancy (giant plant-eating sauropods) were found in a vast geological deposit near Winton that dates from 98-95 million years ago.”

The creatures were unearthed during the State Government funded joint Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum and Queensland Museum digs in Western Queensland.

“The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum and Queensland Museum have successfully partnered to uncover this greatest concentration of dinosaur bones ever found in Australia,” Ms Bligh said.

“This State Government funded initiative has revealed to the world the first new sauropods to be named in Australia in over 75 years and the most complete carnivorous dinosaur skeleton ever found in our country.”

The meat-eating Australovenator wintonensis (Banjo)  has been coined Australia’s answer to Velociraptor – which was brought to terrifying life by Stephen Spielberg in the Jurassic Park films.

“Banjo possessed similar speed, razor-sharp teeth and had three large slashing claws on each hand. This was a terrifying creature,” said the Premier.

“The two plant-eating, four-legged sauropod species unveiled today are new types of titanosaurs – the largest animals ever to walk the earth.”

Palaeontologists say that the Diamantinasaurus matildae (Matilda) was a solid and robust animal, filling a niche similar to the hippopotamus today.

The second new species, Wintonotitan wattsi (Clancy) represented a tall animal that may have been Australia’s prehistoric answer to the giraffe.