3 October 2008
Monash university researchers together with a renowned Australian artist have created the images for the latest stamp issue by Australia Post this week.
Paleontologist Pat Vickers-Rich worked closely with artist Peter Trusler (BSc 1975) over a five-month period to develop and design the creatures for the megafauna stamp series. Trusler spent a further six weeks creating the single oil painting, from which the stamp images were digitally scanned.
The stamp issue depicts six different species from Australian megafauna, which roamed Gondwanaland for millions of years prior to their extinction between 20,000 to 50,000 years ago.
In addition to his artistic career Trusler is also an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Geosciences, and principal in the Palaeontological Laboratory, at Monash University. It is the third time he has produced artwork for an Australia Post stamp series.
"The difficulty in capturing what the species looked like is that we have no first hand knowledge, photographs, or drawings to work from. Therefore, I needed to come up with my own original concept of what I thought they looked like. But that original concept is also very true to the historic recordings, fossils and the ideas of experts who have spent their lives uncovering this wonderful era in our country's history," Trusler said.
Palaeontologist and Director of the Monash Science Centre Professor Pat Vickers- Rich said with the exception to the Tasmanian Tiger, which was still alive last century and is depicted in photographs and moving footage, the only link to megafauna is through fossil records.
"The final image created by Peter was a collaborative effort. It was up to the experts to tell the story of the Megafauna era based on fossils and relics, combined with information on habitat, food and their predatory status. It is a painstaking process, but we believe Peter's brilliant artwork is an incredibly accurate depiction of the large animals that roamed Australia so many years ago, Professor Vickers-Rich said.
The stamp issue release coincides with a world-first display of flora and fossils and other striking images by Trusler at Monash University's Science Centre.
Professor Vickers Rich said The Wildlife of Gondwana travelling exhibition includes more than 300 original and cast fossils, some of which have never before travelled outside their home institutions.
"The Great Southern Supercontinent Gondwana was a mega-landmass that existed for hundreds of millions of years, which began to break up more than 100 million years ago. It included Australia, New Zealand, South America, Antarctica, Africa and India, and perhaps even bits of Southeast Asia."
Peter Trusler's artwork forms part of the Wildlife of Gondwana exhibition which was officially opened on October 7 and will run through until the end of January 2009 at the Monash Science Centre, Clayton campus. The exhibition is open to the public 10-5 weekdays.
For more information or to arrange an interview with Peter Trusler and Professor Vickers-Rich contact Ms Samantha Blair, Media and Communications, +61 3 9903 4841 or +61 439 013 951. | 
