Digging up a prehistoric fossil is a bucket list item for many, and the outback town of Richmond, 500km west of Townsville, is helping people tick that box.

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Every year the town's museum, Kronosaurus Korner, invites members of the public to join a palaeontologist in digging up a large fossil specimen during the Big Dig.

"It enables ordinary members of the public to participate in a palaeontology dig," museum curator Michelle Johnston said.

"We are bringing in something big … it isn't an everyday experience."

The town's annual Big Dig is a fundraiser for the museum, and people travel from all over Australia to take part. ( Supplied: Kronosaurus Korner )

The region is known to have many fossilised marine reptiles — the aquatic counterparts to terrestrial dinosaurs.

This year the Big Dig unearthed an ichthyosaur on a local grazing property that will become one of the museum's exhibits.

"It is something you see on National Geographic. It is not something you normally get to do," Big Dig participant Haydn Geraldine said.

Melbourne-based Alysha Napolitano said she was keen to return to Richmond after taking part in this year's dig.

"It is very addictive and it is fun and you just want to keep going and never stop," she said.

Michelle Johnston says the tourist dollar helps to keep outback towns growing during the drought. "It is through paleo tourism that we attract the tourists." ( ABC North Queensland: Nathalie Fernbach )

Drought conditions push fossils to surface

As many Queensland graziers struggle to find feed and water for their stock, Richmond Shire Mayor John Wharton said tourism was a growth area for the region.

"We do need as a council to try and diversify our community so we don't rely entirely on agriculture," Cr Wharton said.

"For many years the outback hasn't had too much success with tourism, but we have persevered for a long time because we could see it growing."

And drought conditions are good for paleo-tourism, as fossils are pushed to the surface.

"While it is devastating for the graziers, it is actually pretty exciting for us palaeontologists because with the black soil that we have got, it moves the limestone nodules up to the surface," Ms Johnston said.

"[And] in the drought all the grass dies down, so the graziers, when they are out checking the water or checking the fences, these limestone nodules are a lot more visible."

Brothers Jarron and Xavier, from Melbourne, unearth a prehistoric shell in Richmond's rock quarry. Ms Johnston jokes that the shire's roads are built with fossils. ( ABC North Queensland: Nathalie Fernbach )

Fossil finds offer tax relief for landholders

One hundred million years ago the town of Richmond was 40 metres under an inland sea that covered half of Australia.

As a result, marine fossils can be found under any patch of dirt in the area.

The Eromanga Sea covered half of Queensland in prehistoric times, over a similar area to the Great Artesian Basin. ( Wikimedia commons: Tentotwo )

Richmond Shire Council's quarry, which supplies rock for roadworks, is full of fossils and fossil prospectors.

Many of the museum's key fossil specimens have been found by graziers tending to their stock or controlling weeds.

Ms Johnston said graziers who donated fossils to the museum were entitled to a tax break to the value of that fossil, through the Cultural Gifts program.

Fossils can be valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"We are happy as we get a beautiful specimen and they are happy because they get a tax benefit in tough times," Ms Johnston said.

The museum's plesiosaur specimen was discovered in a dry creek bank by local grazier Ian Ievers in 1989. ( Supplied: Kronosaurus Korner )

She said paleo-tourism was one of the main drawcards for many outback Queensland towns.

"Richmond as well as Hughenden, Winton and Boulia and Eromanga, all of these little towns rely on tourism to help them continue to grow," she said.

"Without it we would be lost."