All the way from New Zealand, Margy found out she had an addiction to dinosaurs! Her first experience was participating in the Dino Dig in 2007, now she's going great guns and completed her Honorary Technician Assessment with us.
Here's what she had to say...

I would never have imagined that I would enter the world of dinosaur digs and fossil preparation. I wouldn't want to arm wrestle a sauropod or try to outwit a theropod in the flesh, but such is the fascination that their bones have for me that I have come back to Winton four times and the pull of the bones is as strong as ever. The excitement of wielding an air chisel to look for 'my' sauropod bones, or carefully separating 'my' theropod's bones from the surrounding silt and ironstone with a wen pen (airscribe used to remove siltstone from around the bone) never fails. To go into the Prep Shed with its linging of containers of prepared bones and shelves of plaster jackets hopefully full of bones yet to be prepared, to hear the drills working at the ones and to join the team of enthusiastic fossil hunters, is always a buzz.

At the beginning of my time in the Prep Shed I am shown the piece of rock which will contain (hopefully) 'my' bones. Peering through the magnifying lamp I try to find a place to begin my search. I turn on my pneumatic drill (called a Wen-pen) and make a few tentative strokes in a likely looking area. What happens after that is a mixture of a treasure hunt and a jigsaw puzzle combined with a need for patience, rather than impatience to find BONE. Sometimes I am quickly rewarded with a glimpse of gypsum crystals, or ironstone or even BONE (a tiny bit). At other times I can be wielding an air chisel for many minutes as I search for any sign of 'my' bone.

Sometimes the lack of reward for my patience can be discouraging, but when this happens a quick look around the shed at what has already been achieved by other people drives me back to 'my' bone with renewed enthusiasm. AS the hours and days pass and more and more of 'my' bone is revealed, my imagination begins to full the gaps and I am almost able to see where the next bit of bone might lie.

I am happy that when I finish my time in the Prep Shed and I don't get 'my' bone finished in time, that one day it will become apart of an amazing new Australian Dinosaur in the museum, all the way out in Winton, Q.

If you want this experience, give us a call!