Owner wants to open up Canowindra's fossil site

Dr McGrath visited Canowndra recently to discuss his plans for the site, revealing his dream of "opening it up and making it publicly visible".

Dr McGrath and his wife Aleysha are moving from Canberra to Canowindra in the next month.

"We want to expose the bed more and find the best strategy for exposing new fossils on our block which could uncover the elusive Tetrapods, the first amphibians that walked on land," Dr McGrath said.

"At the very least we hope to find some more fish and more plant life as well. A lot of early plants were starting to grow tall around this period.

"There's broader geo-tourism to be developed and broader interest to be explored so we're excited about other sites in the area as well," Dr McGrath said.

His wish is that these sites too can be opened up with co-operation from their owners.

"The general idea when we bought the block was to continue with Dr Alex Ritchie's dream of opening it up for public viewing instead of just keeping the fossils in the museum," he said.

Paleontologist Dr Ritchie had 10 days for an exploratory dig at the site when it was first uncovered near Canowindra in July, 1993.

Dr McGrath said when the adjoining property was put up for sale last year the Australian Museum and Canowindra's Age of Fishes Museum were both approached to gauge their interest.

"They didn't have the finances, so it was left to an individual buyer," Dr McGrath said.

"We got a lot of support from the Age of Fishes, we would never have bought it without support from the staff there.

"We proceeded on the notion that they would continue to support us, and they've done so.

"I'd like everyone to keep involved as much as possible, it's in Canowindra and Cowra's backyard. There's a fabulous paleontology record in the whole area."

Dr McGrath says from his experience exposed fossil sites are popular with tourists, hence his future plans for the site.

"A reasonable percentage of people who visit the (Age of Fishes) museum would like to see where they were dug up," he said.

"My experience is well exposed and presented fossil sites are a tourist attraction and of general interest.

"I've had the benefit and privilege of seeing a number of major fossil sites throughout the world. They're always interesting for people to see where the events took place.

"In Canowindra's case it was a mass death event for fish, 360 million years ago.

"Something terrible happened that day, either a volcanic eruption or a climate change, or perhaps a tidal event, that isolated the fish and they died.

"There's an interesting detective story here and we'd like to expose that.

"The people of NSW and Australia need to be more aware of the story, it is in their backyard, it's their history and the history of the world," Dr McGrath said.

ALSO MAKING NEWS: