Desalinated Dinosaurs?

The Victorian State Government's plans to build a water desalination plant near Wonthaggi hit an unexpected obstacle when it was revealed that a significant deposit of prehistoric fossils was located in the plant's proposed construction site.

The fossils, dating back 115 million years, had been discovered by palaeontologists at the Powlett River site in Kilcunda, Victoria, in 1994. However, their exact location had been kept a secret, until researchers realised that the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) may not have been aware of the fossil site's existence. Dr. Thomas Rich, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Melbourne Museum (who is profiled on page 58 of Prehistoric Australia), wrote to the DSE to alert them of the site's presence.

Remains of ornithopods and plesiosaurs, along with polar lungfish, are amongst the fossils to have been uncovered at the site.

The Victorian State Government is yet to decide whether it will conduct an environmental effects study to gauge the potential impact that the proposed desalination plant will have on the fossil site. However, Water Minister Tim Holding has been reported in the media as saying that the plant's inflow and outflow pipes would be laid well below the surface of the excavation site.

You can listen to an online recording of an ABC World Today interview with Dr Tom Rich, Water Minister Tim Holding and the Victorian state opposition water spokeswoman, Louise Asher, which was aired on Tuesday 27 November 2007.

Image of polar lungfish courtesy of Australian Dinosaur Story, Australian Heritage Directory.

HMS Fly - The 'prehistoric' ship

Eagle-eyed readers of Prehistoric Australia will no doubt recall that we made mention of the British vessel, HMS Fly, and its role in uncovering some of Australia's earliest prehistoric fossils. (And if you can't recall this offhand, then turn to page 24. Yes, that's it, the second paragraph. Got it? Good! Then we may proceed...)

So, what was a British naval vessel doing so far from home, digging up dinosaur bones on the other side of the world? Actually, finding fossils was the last thing on the Fly's "to do" list. It was actually surveying much of the coast of north-eastern Australia, as well as New Guinea, during 1842-46. As part of its mission to accurately map new trade & shipping routes in the region, the Fly carried out surveys of the Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait, as well as Whitsunday Island and the Capricorn Islands.

HMS Fly was captained by Francis Price Blackwood. Amongst its crew was the geologist Joseph Beete Jukes and the naturalist John MacGilivray. An illustrated account of the voyage and its discoveries, titled Sketches in Australia and the adjacent islands, was published in 1849 by the expedition's draftsman, Harden S. Melville.

Oh, and in case you're wondering what the 'HMS' in HMS Fly stands for, it means 'Her Majesty's Ship' - so named, because Queen Victoria was Britain's monarch at the time. (If a king had been enthroned, HMS would represent 'His Majesty's Ship'). And, on a related note, Australia's modern naval vessels bear the prefix 'HMAS', which stands for 'Her Majesty's Australian Ship'.