Ancient stories whispered through time . . . .

Sometimes the ‘lost’ stories of the past simply lie buried, awaiting our discovery.  And it’s people like Professor Jim Bowler, renowned geologist who not only uncover these hidden artefacts, they piece together the jigsaw of history to add depth and colour to our lives today.  Here are some of those stories.

From mighty redgums comes ancient wood

Today, at 2520 kilometres or 1566 miles long, the Murray River is one of Australia’s longest rivers.    Together with its tributary, the Darling River, the Murray forms Australia’s longest continuous river system (3370 kilometres or 2094 miles) and creates the Murray-Darling River Basin that covers about 14% of Australia.

12,000 years ago though, Australia’s mountains, rivers and plains were recovering from the drastic effects of the last Ice Age.  Mighty redgums, previously devastated by the intense cold and extremely dry environment, were struggling to return, to recolonise the riverbanks from which they had retreated some thousands of years before.

Alas, the River Murray was not ready for them.  Loaded with gravels from Ice Age period, the swift flowing stream undercut its banks and the huge trees fell into its channel, there to be swiftly buried beneath layers of sand and gravel.  For thousands of years, this process continued, before the river adjusted to warmer and quieter conditions of modern times permitting trees to grow along the floodplains, now without the active erosion and burial.

The hidden forest of ancient trees lay undisturbed for more than between 5,000 thousand and 50,000 thousand years.  The influence of the underlying water and minerals slowly changed the nature of the wood, depositing chemicals to both preserve the original timber and to convert it into a dense black colour, resembling ebony.

Now you can own a unique piece of this history.  Please browse our on-line catalogue.