Friday, July 19, 2024

GULGONG FOSSIL HISTORY

Fossils found

Locations
NEWS ITEMS

1866 - SCIENTIFIC MEMORANDA
Mr Plunkett, of Talbragar, near Mudgee, has found on several occasions some interesting fossils, which the Rev W B Clarke recognises as the impressions of an extinct species of fern (Glossopteris Brownii) similar in all probability to that which Sir Thomas Mitchell and others have found in different parts of Australia. Mr Plunkett also noticed a fragment of a bone which had been dug up at thirty feet below the surface of the ground, but unfortunately it is too imperfect to be determined. The Rev W B Clarke, however, supposes it to be the bone of a kangaroo. In addition to these specimens Mr Plunkett has collected a small milky plant (Euphorbia chamoesyce), the juice of which the blacks [sic] sometimes employ to attach pieces of feather to bees for the purpose of discovering their nests.

1870 - [MONSTER FOSSILS]
Some monster fossil remains have been found by the miners at Gulgong.

1876 - [FOSSIL PLANTS]
Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, the Government Geologist, in his survey of the Gulgong district, reports the existence of gold in payable quantities in a conglomerate bed of the carboniferous formation, and infers this to be the most ancient auriferous alluvial deposit in the world. He also discovered nine entirely new species of fossil plants, representing no fewer than seven genera new to science.