On a cold and damp November morning, at the Borough Council offices in Weymouth, members of the management committee voted unanimously to put the council’s support behind Jurassica, an audacious plan to build a world-class visitor centre on the Isle of Portland. No council has money to give away in today’s economic and political climate, and in cash terms the support given by W&PBC is incredibly modest; a letter of support, and a gift in kind of office space and officer time. However, it is not the size of the gift that matters, but the fact it has been given at all.
Jurassica is the vision of Michael Hanlon, a science journalist and author who grew up in Dorset. Jurassica will be the world’s most spectacular prehistoric attraction, a registered not-for-profit charity whose charitable objects encompass the conservation and display of world-class paleontological specimens, scientific outreach and education, and opportunities for locally based volunteering and skills acquisition.
In an old limestone quarry on Portland, under an extraordinary glass and steel roof designed by the world’s finest architect Renzo Piano, visitors will be able to walk back through time and take in hundreds of millions of years of Earth’s most interesting chunk of history, the age of the dinosaurs and plesiosaurs, the pterosaurs and ammonites.
The rocks of the Jurassic Coast contain fossils from the Mesozoic era, the period in Earth’s history when life was at its most are typified by the existence of one extraordinary group of animals – the dinosaurs. In Dorset and East Devon are preserved the fossil remains not only of the great land reptiles, but the bizarre and often enormous marine reptiles and molluscs so different to anything alive today – the characteristic spiral-shelled ammonites, the dolphin-like ichthyosaurs and the huge plesiosaurs, one of which (excavated in Dorset just a few years ago) may have been one of the largest active marine predators ever to have lived.
Jurassica is an exciting project, it is a huge project for Dorset, it has ambition and it has aspiration…and, it has dinosaurs. There is no magic pot of money to make projects like Jurassica happen, and it’s expensive, the project cost is estimated to be £70-80m. Some of this money, about a third, will come from public sources, some will be lent, and some will come from businesses, large and small, from trusts and from individuals. By supporting Jurassica, the council have recognised the enormous impact the project would have on Dorset, and in particular on Portland and Weymouth. Jurassica will have a similar draw to the Eden Project in Cornwall. It will provide around 200 permanent jobs, provide extensive training programmes, apprenticeships, research collaborations and work placements. The volunteer programme will create high-quality volunteering opportunities in a wide variety of roles, reaching older and younger volunteers, individuals and groups.
Come and hear more Friday 7th November 7pm-8pm Presentation followed by audience questions at IPACA, Royal Manor Campus, Weston Road, Portland DT5 2RS
For more information and project updates please like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/jurassica.org[email protected]
Alison Smith
