In 1999, David Elliott discovered the fossilized bone of what was, at the time, Australia's largest dinosaur while mustering sheep on his property in Belmont, near Winton.

The organization, with support from a strong member's volunteer base, began the initial stages of developing a major tourism attraction in the form of a dinosaur museum so that the discoveries could be preserved for perpetuity and be available to the public.

While mustering sheep in March 2005, David Elliott discovered a new dinosaur site on Belmont, and a subsequent dig in September uncovered the remains of one of Australia's most complete sauropod skeletons.

The Winton Shire Council built a new gravel road to the top of the Jump-Up and the Queensland Government contributed $500,000 toward a fossil preparation facility, staff cottages, and water and power amenities.

Stage 3, which is the future site of the AAOD Museum of Natural History, has completed its concept planning phase, and the initial construction of outdoor galleries has commenced.

The laboratory is located approximately 500m from the reception center and performs all the preparation, preservation, and restoration work necessary to enable the dinosaur fossils to be scientifically studied and put on exhibition.

As dinosaur fossils are usually preserved in solid-rock boulders or covered in thick bands of ironstone matrix, it is often a long and time-consuming task to chisel the rock away.

Digitally sculpted by AAOD palaeo-artist Travis R. Tischler, the statue was cast by Deep in the Heart Foundry, Texas, USA.

The specimens are displayed in a semi-circle around a public stage where visitors can view the fossils as part of daily guided tours run by the museum.

The Collection Room is fitted with audiovisual equipment that complements the guided tours by showing animation footage of western Queensland's dinosaurs.

This footage consists of excerpts from the documentary Monsters in the Outback, which was produced for the museum by Bearcage Studios in 2013 through funding provided to AAOD by BHP.

The new attraction consists of an Outpost perched on the cliff overlooking Dinosaur Canyon and includes 300 metres of elevated concrete pathway throughout the gorge below.

Five outdoor galleries are positioned along the pathway, which resembles a treetop walk as it winds through massive boulders and thick vegetation below the rim of a gorge.

The vast majority of the dinosaur fossils discovered by the AAOD Museum are from the earliest Late Cretaceous period and are approximately 98-95 million years old.

This has been determined using radiometric dating of zircons - tiny grains which fall between 60 and 200 microns that form part of the sandstones which make up the Winton Formation.

[2] The Winton Formation is a paralic to terrestrial/freshwater deposit[11] that is remnant of a vast network of river floodplains that drained northward into the Eromanga Sea in the late Albian to Cenomanian stages of the Cretaceous period.

The deposit is up to 1.2 km thick in southwest Queensland and becomes thinner as it extends north toward Winton due to both erosion and original distribution.

The Mackunda Formation[11] represents the final phase of the inland sea that receded from the Winton area approximately 100-98 million years ago.

[1] The cap-rock surface of the Jump-Up is solid rock of varying thickness up to 12 metres that has resisted erosion throughout a period of deep weathering that eroded the surrounding countryside away.

Although the initial 10-day training period attracts a daily charge, once participants become qualified Honorary Technicians their only further cost is an annual one day refresher course.

The digs take place in the Mitchell grass downs country of the Winton district, and have produced numerous dinosaur fossils – many of which have become holotype specimens.

Palaeontologists closely involved with the museum collection include, in alphabetical order: As former Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology and Senior Curator of Geosciences at the Queensland Museum, Alex Cook is a widely published researcher who is recognized for his work on invertebrate faunas of the Great Artesian Basin and the Palaeozoic of north Queensland.

He was the first author on a paper published by PLoS One in 2009 that named three new Australian dinosaur species from the Winton Formation, including Diamantinasaurus matildae, Australovenator wintonensis, and Wintonotitan wattsi.

These specimens, which include marine reptiles, turtles, and fish, were recovered in close proximity to Winton Formation dinosaur bones on Belmont Station.

Kear's research will ascertain what taxa are present in the assemblage and enable him to compile a taxonomic list for a quantitative survey of marine vertebrate biodiversity across the Aptian-Cenomanian within the Eromanga Basin.

[19] In August 2017, Ada Klinkhamer completed a PhD on sauropod appendicular musculature and biomechanics, with a focus on Diamantinasaurus matildae from the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum.

Stephen McLoughlin is a palaeobotanist with the Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History who has carried out research on the fossil flora of the Winton Formation since the mid-1990s.

Significantly, this assemblage contains the youngest Australian fossils of equisetaleans, pentoxylaleans, and possibly bennettitaleans, all groups that appear to have succumbed to competition from the rapidly diversifying angiosperms of this time.

The flowering plants represented in this flora have mostly toothed or lobed leaf types and are of possible fagaceous or betulaceous affinities, but their precise relationships remain unclear.

By studying their range of motion, muscle attachment scars, and structural capacities, he has created "reverse dissection" models of dinosaur musculature, providing an accurate body form on which detailed, functional skin interpretations can be reconstructed.