Almost 100 million years ago, a 500kg predator with slashing claws drowned in a billabong in central Queensland.
The ''cheetah of his time'', who could run down most prey with ease, was buried with his prey, a giant plant-eating sauropod.
Now palaeontologists and hundreds of volunteers have unearthed Australovenator wintonensis and two other new species of dinosaurs near the outback town of Winton.
In a remarkable twist of fate, Australian poet Banjo Paterson composed Waltzing Matilda a song about another drowning at a billabong at the very same town.
The three dinosaurs are nicknamed after Paterson and references to his work: Banjo, Clancy and Matilda.
Banjo was found with Matilda in the 98 million-year-old billabong. The palaeontologists could not determine whether they died at separate times, or got stuck in the mud and drowned together, like the swagman and his jumbuck.
The three are the first large Australian dinosaurs to be discovered in 28 years.
Palaeontologist and 2002 Young Australian of the Year Scott Hocknull said their find was ''a boyhood dream come true''.
''I think it's going to change the course of natural history in Australia,'' he said.
''When I was a kid I was taught about dinosaurs, but of course, they were all overseas. We're what I call the last friendly frontier, where you can come out and find these dinosaurs.''
Banjo, the most complete carnivorous dinosaur found in Australia to date, should provide insights into the ancestry of the carcharodontosaurs, the largest group of meat-eating dinosaurs known to walk the earth.
Australovenator wintonensis means Winton's Southern Hunter.
Mr Hocknull said Banjo was light and agile.
''His most distinguishing feature was three large slashing claws on each hand. Unlike some therapods that have small arms think T. rex Banjo was different,'' he said.
''His arms were a primary weapon. He's Australia's answer to Velociraptor, but many times bigger and more terrifying.''
Matilda, Diamantinasaurus matildae, and Clancy, Wintonotitan wattsi, are different kinds of titanosaur, which are the largest dinosaurs known. These plant-eating dinosaurs measured 16m and weighed between 10 and 20 tonnes.Mr Hocknull said the discoveries, made as recently as 2006, were the world's ''worst best-kept secret''.
''A lot of the Winton locals knew all about it, but because they knew it was going to be a big splash and it was going to put Winton on the map, they all stayed very quiet about it,'' he said.
Mr Hocknull is the lead author of a paper that describes the three new dinosaurs and is published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.
Palaeontologist and Museum Victoria head of sciences John Long said the paper was one of the most significant published on Australian dinosaurs.
He said the find also solved a debate that had been raging since 1981 over Victoria's Allosaurus, which is known from a single ankle bone. It now appeared to belong to Australovenator, revealing interesting links to the gigantic group of Gondwana meat eaters, the carcharodontosauroids.
''This paper puts Australia back on the international map of big dinosaur discoveries for the first time since 1981, when Muttaburrasaurus was announced,'' Dr Long said. The project involved the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum and Queensland Museum staff and volunteers.
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