In preparation for the 150th anniversary of Freestone State School I turned to Trove, the National Library of Australia’s Online Newspaper Archive. One of the stories that emerged was the discovery of megafauna fossils, some of which were in close proximity to the school.
Contact with the Queensland Museum revealed that four fossil species of interest to the museum have been found in the vicinity of Freestone Creek, of which the first three could be described as megafauna.
Kukadonta robusta - a diprotodon (giant wombat)
Nototherium - another diprotodon
Protocoptodon rapha - a giant kangaroo, and
Dasyurus dunmalli - an ancient quoll
The presence of prehistoric megafauna on the Darling Downs has been known for a long time. The explorer Ludwig Leichhardt wrote in his journal …
The Condamine forms, for a great distance, the separation of the sandstone country to the westward, from the rich basaltic plains to the eastward. These plains, so famous for the richness of their pasture, and for the excellency of the sheep and cattle depastured upon them, have become equally remarkable as the depositaries of the remains of extinct species of animals, several of which must have been of a gigantic size, being the Marsupial representatives of the Pachydermal order of other continents.
Mr. Isaacs' station is particularly rich in these fossil remains; and they have been likewise found in the beds and banks of Mr. Hodgson's and of Mr. Campbell's Creeks, and also of Oaky Creek. At Isaacs' Creek, they occur together with recent freshwater shells of species still living in the neighbouring ponds, and with marly and calcareous concretions; which induces me to suppose that these plains were covered with large sheets of water, fed probably by calcareous springs connected with the basaltic range, and that huge animals, fond of water, were living, either on the rich herbage surrounding these ponds or lakes, or browsing upon the leaves and branches of trees forming thick brushes on the slopes of the neighbouring hills.
Ludwig Leichhardt (1847) Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5005/pg5005-images.html
The mid-nineteenth century was a period of vigorous and sometimes contested discovery and some of the big names of science showed an interest in the discoveries which were emerging from the Australian colonies. Among them was Richard Owen, best known for creating the term ‘dinosaur’. Owen wrote about the Darling Downs megafauna, and the names they carry through to today are his creation.
The name of Professor Richard Owen, F.R.S., C.B., &c, f&c., superintendent of the Natural History Department of the British Museum, is a household one in every home in the colonised world where science throws even its shadows across the threshold of the door.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51904089
I mention him because you bump into his name again and especially in the attribution of names to specimens.
Timeline
Articles in date order - genus mentioned
1895 - Nototherium, Diprotodon
Natural History Society.
The fortnightly meeting of the Natural History Society was held last week in the Museum Library. The hon. secretary (Mr. A. T. O. Preston) announced the receipt of additions to the library from the Royal Society, Department of Agriculture, and from Messrs. H. Tryon and A. Meston. The preliminary business included the nomination of two candidates for membership, after which a paper was read on "Some Extinct Animals from Jimbour Creek, Darling Downs." The following is a summary thereof :—
The Downs has ever been a district productive of fossils. Most of the creeks discharging into the Condamine, if examined after a fresh or two, will reveal scattered bones and teeth, either in the bed of gravel, where they have settled after the first swift rush of water, or jutting from the bank, where they have been deposited in successive layers during the preceding changes of the river bed. The banks of King and Gowrie Creeks, on Canning Downs, Freestone Creek, and all the various watercourses of the Western plains, from Chinchilla inwards, and probably further out West, have supplied various fossil bones to the museum. As in many other creeks on the Downs, the fossil remains so numerous under the plains round Dalby and Chinchilla, are found embedded in a calcareous deposit, with which they are often so much coated as to form a tufa, in which the hidden bone is almost unrecognisable, so much has its shape been altered. Mixed with this are fresh water shells of the same form as those at present procurable in existing creeks and waterholes, leading one to the conclusion that these mighty animals had somewhat the amphibious tendencies of their larger predecessors, the reptile dinosaurs of the Old and New World strata ; dying as the water receded, perishing by degrees, until now, we have the whole of the underlying strata of these plains one immense cemetery, one jumbled mass of broken bones; grim, silent remains, telling of a long-lost world of animal creation. The whole of the bed and banks of Jimbour Creek supply fossil remains in scattered and broken fragments, but in great abundance, those of Nototharas, Diprotodons, Macropods and Halmaturi being typical.
The first of these that I had the good fortune to expose was the greater portion of the skeleton of Diprotodon Australis — a paterfamilias as Mr. de Vis informs me, a full-toothed old chap. These animals usually measured 6ft. to 8ft. high, with a length from 10ft. to 12ft., and were herbivorous. The bones of this example were in a poor state of preservation, much crushed, and displaced by the mass of black soil overlaying them, and of a crumbling texture. The greater part of the fore-skeleton was observable jutting from the bank, but no feet, or bone fragments of the same were found, this being the only portion not yet obtained, of this gigantic marsupial. Most of the ribs were there, a portion of the verte-bra, and the immense skull fully 3ft. in length and 18in. in breadth across the cranium. The enamel on the molars was perfectly preserved, but terribly crushed out of shape.
Since then many fragments, well preserved and fossilised, consisting of the limb bones—namely, the tibia, fibula, ulna, radius, and humerus, together with portions of ribs and vertebral joints, of the same animal, have been unearthed. Not less important was the discovery of two or three maxillaries with large incisors and molars, more or less worn, attached. One or two of the latter measured from 2 ½ in. to 3in. in length and 1½in. across.
Of other members of this order I have met with jaws, teeth and leg-bones in splendid preservation, the possessors of which belonged to the Macropods, and must have been of immense size as compared with the kangaroos and wallabies of the present day. The lower maxillaries so often found here belonging to Macropus pan and Magister, must have been 8in. to a foot in length ; one very good specimen in particular showed much worn molars, with the new teeth supplying their place in underlying cavities. The Halmaturi unearthed here include H. anak, which, from its name, I should say was the largest of the genus ; H. Cooperi or Cooper's wallaby ; H. orcinus, vincens, minor, Thor. and Siva, the two latter evidently receiving their specific names historically from ancient gods of the Vikings and Hindoos respectively. All of these mandibles contained teeth of perfect shape and preservation, apparently undamaged by the wear and tear of ages of chafing by water and rock.
Of the third or wombat family specimens of no less than two, perhaps more, species of "Nototheres" are met with here, one of which proved to be N. Mitchell. Perhaps the most important find on this creek was that of a scapholunar of the ankle, the fourth metatarsal, and the cuneiform from the foot of a Nototherium, which discovery goes far to prove the affinity of the Nototharia to that large branch of the animal kingdom to which also the Diprotodon belongs—namely, the "wombats." I may state that since that discovery I have met with and unearthed another foot fragment further down the same creek, which as yet I have not submitted to Mr. De Vis, through whose kindness I have been able to name the fragments.
Before leaving the subject finally I should not forget to mention the very common occurrence of portions of the caudal vertebrae of the immense iguano-like lizard of that period, the Megalania prisca of the late Sir Richard Owen. This reptile, from the abundance of its vertebral joints, which are black, solid, and 3in. by 1½ in. at the head, and much constricted between, ought to have been no very great rarity in the Nototherian period of ancient Australia.
The hon. secretary, who read the paper in the absence of its author, also gave extracts from a lecture on the subject given by Mr. C. W. De Vis, M.A., at one of the congresses of the Science Association. Characteristic examples of the remains of the various animals alluded to were exhibited, and served to enlighten the members with regard to these extinct forms of life.
In the discussion which followed, Mr. J. P. Thomson, F.R.G.S., expressed the hope that the Natural History Society would take up the question of paleo-climatic conditions, and endeavour to elucidate as far as possible what these were at the time when this uncouth land fauna existed. He thought that this would not be an unworthy aim. Mr. A. Meston also spoke, and produced a number of fossils from his own collection.
Other extinct animals were referred to by Mr. H. Tryon, many of whose remains he had found on the Darling Downs, and some of which had not been brought to notice previously. ...
