Respect to our Elders

“I’d would like to acknowledge the

Traditional Custodians of the Land on
which we meet,

.........and pay our respect to Elders past,

present & future”

Indigenous people have a long history of occupation

in Bayside: middens dating ≈ 2000 – 3000 years
 Acknowledgements
• President, Rotary Club of Brighton
– President Keith Cameron
– Sylvie & Anthony Langley
– Robert Ward

• Museums Victoria
– Dr Erich Fitzgerald, senior Curator of MV &
the Bayside palaeontology team
– Ben Francischelli , local palaeontologist
 Local beaches: cliff formation
• Brighton/Hampton/Sandringham/Black
Rock/Beaumaris Bay coastline:
– Hard “Sandringham [formerly called
Beaumaris / Black Rock] Sandstone”
– up to 12-15 m in Beaumaris Bay
• Base contains iron oxide/phosphate
• 5-12 millions yrs old / slower recession

– Soft “Red Bluff Sand”

• Less FeO – sand cements with FeO
• 2-5 million years old / faster erosion
Beaumaris Bay
Site A
 Beaumaris Bay nominated for
National Heritage listing
-scientific significance

• Palaeontological -5-6 million yo

• Geological
• Artistic
• Indigenous & cultural values
5-6 million year old fossils/cliffs
• Richest & most diverse fossils of
international significance

• both marine & terrestrial mammal fossils

• the only international significant urban

fossil site in Australia
 Beaumaris Bay Fossil Site
-registered Aust Heritage Database 1999 No:18053

• Pelagornithids - extinct bird with pseudoteeth

• Shark teeth; bones of seals, penguins, primitive
dolphins, dugongs & whales; sea turtle shells
• Jaw bones of Diprotodontid marsupials
• Molluscs, snails, slugs, bivalves (clams, mussels,
etc.), cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopuses, etc.)
• Brachiopods (hard valve shells)
• Echinoderms (eg star fish, sea urchins)
• Crustraceans (eg crays, crabs, barnacles, shrimps)
• Corals........
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-
bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail&place_id=018053
PPB was much larger extending to Caulfield
[↑ temp’s 3 degrees→sea level rise]; large rivers
flowed into Bay bringing bones & trees to settle in
soft mud → stone/rocks.......fossils
 Heart urchins (spatangoids)
Lovenia woodsii ~ 5 million years old
 Diprotodons
1.6 million-10,000 years ago
1 of largest marsupial; herbivore- a giant wombat
1.5 m long; 80cm tall
-time of extinction?
-co-existed with aborigines ≈ 25,000 yrs ago ?hunting / fires
 Ophiomorpha beaumarisensis
a trace fossil – burrow of a thalassinidean lobster in
Sandringham sandstone
Late Neogene ~5 million years old
 Mud lobster 5-6 M yrs ago
Thalassina anomala -sub-fossil from Darwin
-probably looked like this
 Megalodon!
Largest shark ever
~15 metres long
Tyrannosaurus rex tooth, the extinct
sperm whale tooth & contemporary
sperm whale tooth Photo: Ben Healley
 Like stories of
Moby Dick -a fictional
sperm whale ↓

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victor
ia/giant-beaumaris-tooth-reveals-monster-
whale-stalked-our-seas/news-
story/d61991da22dc111a1bc3b0e6ce9538e
a
Lower jaw of a fossilised sperm whale found
at Beaumaris
Erich Fitzgerald, Museum Victoria
Discovered by Prof Tim Flannery
Sea turtle fossils at Beaumaris filled a
66-million-year-gap in the history of
Australian reptiles
>5000 registered fossils
at
Museums Victoria
Elaine Anderson working on a skull
fragment from Site B
 The Lost World of Bayside Fossils
Museums Victoria Bayside Fossil Fundraiser
(Donations are 100% tax deductible)
https://museumsvictoria.com.au/join-support/make-a-donation/the-lost-world-of-
bayside-fossils/donate