Ancient and Modern Seas

The geography of Australia is as old as time itself.  We discovered the ancient inland seabed and it's fascinating fossils in a small town called Richmond on our way to the coast.

Richmond has an incredible little museum full of fossils found in the area.  We were camping next to a Canadian couple who have volunteered at the museum and on digs in the area for months at a time over the past few years.  Barb and Gary, both retired school teachers, are exploring a passion of theirs here in the outback, living in a humble tent and spending their days hunched over their latest find, slowly peeling back the years of sediment to uncover the mysteries of the marine life in prehistoric times.  Having already discovered several new species dating back more than 100 million years, they believe there is still a lot to be discovered.

Gary, hard at work on their latest project. 

Barb, in front of a display of one of their many finds.

Fossilised marine creatures are being found in almost fully intact conditions. 

And now we are back on the coast, to a town called Townsville.  We spent the day out in the water diving the wreck Yongala and looking at the incredible modern day sea life.  The SS Yongala sunk in 1911 with 121 passengers on board.  They never knew where it sank and it wasnt until 1943 when a Navy minesweeper identified an object which was later investigated and identified as a fair size steamship lying in its side in about 24 meters of water.  It lay there untouched until 1958 when the first divers went down and identified it as the Yongala.  

The Yongala has an amazing variety of new residents - turtles, bull rays, eagle rays, giant trevallies, barracuda, bat fish, etc.  It makes for an interesting but solemn dive knowing this is the watery grave of 121 souls.