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Last night, my wife and I watched a documentary on fossil hunting. Trying to soak up as much information as possible.... it would seem that we needed to find a shale bank or coal dump.... we both started drifting off to sleep when my wife rolled over and said that she had an idea of where to go, no actual evidence as to why, just a gut feeling. Morning time comes and we both set off out the front door. Just as we get out the yard, my wives cousin yells out and hands us a small pick he used to use in the mines. Bam, what a great start to the day. So we set off again on our way to the “gut feeling” she had. We get to this new location and start looking around. A road cut bank of shale produced nothing. During this little endeavour I managed to cut my thumb after the hammer bounced off the pick and it struck just above the nail. We carry on up the track to a curve and notice a little man-made roadside ditch with a stream of water flowing through it. I lean in to clean the dried blood off my finger when I notice a fossil (Cordaites leaf) looking up at me through the water. I immediately grab my pick, strike and what we find is the best haul of fossils we’ve ever seen. Just piece after piece, layer after layer. We go on to notice the road we are standing on is made up of this rock and there are fossils literally, everywhere. The whole hill side is this stone. It’s a dark grey, soft stone. Shale right? Anyways, here are some of our favourite finds. Still learning and looking for more. Do you think we may find insects? Also, what’s the best course of action for this place? Some of these rocks are coming out in big chunks. Should we try and break them into as many “slices” as possible? We don’t want to miss any tiny fossils we could be inadvertently throwing away! Cheers for now. Also, we think we’ve identified these, but as a test of our skills, If you know any of these, could you post what you think it is and we can see if we’re right! Thank you!