A glimpse of people's reaction to two dinosaurs during the Enlightenment Festival earlier this year was enough to convince the National Botanic Gardens to bring more of the prehistoric giants into their forest of vegetation at Acton.
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That hunch appeared to have paid off when unprecedented numbers of families streamed through the gates on Saturday and Sunday to see a collaboration between National Dinosaur Museum and the gardens.
Most children's eyes nearly popped with excitement. Some were frightened. And for little Hayden McGrath of Weston, there was a hint of disappointment because a Tyrannosaurus rex was not lurking among the trees with all the other scaly monsters.
For nine days until Sunday, August 23, during National Science Week, the monsters will migrate from the National Dinosaur Museum to feature in the Prehistoric Garden Trail, an immersive experience of palaeontology on the side of Black Mountain. Visitors encounter seven dinosaurs and plant fossils among the plants and landscapes they once inhabited.
Gardens ranger Ryan Godfrey says the response has been unprecedented, with extraordinary numbers of people visiting.
"We have had completely full days, volumes coming through, people planning their day around it, and people staying as long as they can to take in as much as they can see while the daylight is still good and it is still reasonably warm," Mr Godfrey said.
He said the efforts to ramp up the number of dinosaurs and including eight fossils, interpretative signage and a booklet had been exceptionally well received.
Tim Mcgrath of Weston said his children, aged 6 and under, were already fascinated by dinosaurs, so it was not a hard sell getting them to the gardens.
"My four year-old, Hayden was disappointed there were no T. rexes there, but they were right onto the pterodactyls and all that sort of thing, so I think they had a bit of interest [in science] anyway.
"We didn't go into every nook and cranny, we just stayed on the main path. It took about an hour."
Cassie Alexander said she and her daughter Poppy loved their two-hour outing, which included lunch at the gardens..
Megan Donalds, public programs officer at the gardens, said the trail combined nature, science and adventure.
"We've created a trail of 17 prehistoric narratives for audiences of all ages. These stories will explore the ancient fossils of Gondwana, and what they reveal about the distribution patterns of living organisms from which our modern native plants and animals have evolved," she said.
Visitors are encouraged to think like a scientist and investigate clues that indicate how plants and animals co-existed.
"Questions such as the diet of each dinosaur, based on the type of teeth they had, where they lived and the plants that existed during a particular period. Were they meat eaters, or herbivores or omnivores?" Ms Donaldson said.
