The Riversleigh Dig

In North-West Queensland, on a remote plateau of a cattle station called Riversleigh, explosives, sledgehammers and crow bars have enabled a diverse collection of prehistoric animals to see the light of day for the first time in approximately 25 million years. From hard, razor edged limestones scientists have recovered the remains of more than a hundred different species from one of the world's richest fossil deposits. Many are new to science, some were evidently ancestors of creatures now living; others were unique and even bizarre.

The Riversleigh discoveries have already more than doubled the sum of knowledge about the history of Australia's unique fauna. In addition, because of the diversity of ages represented among the discoveries, the Riversleigh deposits are providing a rare opportunity to trace the discoveries of this fauna over the past 25 million years of history.

A brief summary of initial discoveries:

1901
W.E. Cameron reports discovery of fossil bones at Riversleigh. For various reasons this early discovery was not immediately followed up.

1963
Richard Tedford and Alan Lloyd collect four new animals from what they recognised to be middle Miocene limestones on Riversleigh.

1966
Alan Bartholomai of the Queensland Museum collected vertebrates from Riversleigh and spotted new fossil mammals in inaccessible positions on cliff faces.

1976-1978
Work began on the area starting with Tedford's "D-Site".

1978
"Microsite", a patch of light coloured limestone that was the first Riversleigh deposit known to contain small mammals, including bats, was discovered.

1982
Examination of high-altitude colour photographs led to the suggestion that more of the strangely coloured limestone might occur in a more remote part of Riversleigh Station.

1983
The year of the first real breakthrough with the discovery of "Gag-Site". About 4 tonnes of limestone was collected and subsequently over 50 new species of mammal were recovered from this area alone.

1984
Even more successful than 1983, over 12 tonnes of limestone were collected from more than 15 different sites.

1985
The discoveries came thick and fast. In summary, this year added at least ten million years of history to the Riversleigh story as well as a fundamental new understanding about its significance.

Today
Work continues at Riversleigh with fossil digs each year, and the unique treasury of Australian prehistory entombed in the rocks of Riversleigh is, for all practical purposes, without visible limits.