Quick trip to Beaumaris Cliffs, Australia

[digit]

Glad that you enjoyed seeing the trip report--and took the time to comment.

 

I have the opportunity to travel and I'm always on the lookout for some fun "treasure hunting" where ever I find myself. Not everybody has the chance to visit some of the places I've shown on trip reports and so I like to provide as compelling a virtual trip as I can (short of taking and narrating video). For those who are in a position to visit the sites I've been to, I hope that my reports motivate them to make the plans to see the sites for themselves and enjoy them as I did. At the very least, I enjoy viewing other trip reports which often inspire me and so I like to pay it forward by contributing to the great resource that is TFF.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

P.S.: Alberta is high on my list of places I'd like to visit.

[ynot]

4 minutes ago, digit said:

Not everybody has the chance to visit some of the places I've shown on trip reports and so I like to provide as compelling a virtual trip as I can

And a superb job You do of it Ken!! (where is the clapping hands emoticon when You need it, argh.)

 

Love all the virtual trips You take Us on!

 

Tony

[FossilDAWG]

Thanks for the excellent trip report!

 

Everyone should be aware that this fossil site is under extreme threat.  The Beaumaris Motor Yacht Squadron has filed plans to vastly expand its present facilities.  Plans include erecting 550 metres of high sea walls to privatize an area that is presently public sea; to build an 88-metre long boat storage shed against the Beaumaris Cliff, and as high as it; and to monopolize 4.8 times the company's present area.  The yacht club is private, so public access to the area would be eliminated.  The fossil site would also be totally destroyed, buried behind and beneath sea walls that would cover the cliffs.

 

More information here, and here.  The first site has many links to articles about fossil discoveries at the site, and also a link to an online petition people may choose to sign to have the site preserved for public access.

 

Don

[digit]

I had heard wind of this threat (likely elsewhere on TFF). It would be a shame to have this great locality buried underneath tons of concrete but it just might happen unless the BMYS's plans for expansion can be curtailed or modified so as not to destroy the site or cut-off access to it (or both). I'm a pessimist (but prefer to call myself a realist--they are the same in my pessimistic mind). Let's hope some of the optimists in the greater Melbourne area can preserve this site before it is too late.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[traveltip1]

Fun area to hunt.  I was there 13 years ago.

[digit]

Agreed. Hope this place remains available for fossil hunting in the future.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Paleoworld-101]

Woops i totally missed this! Great report Ken!

 

I'm very happy to have assisted you and it looks like you certainly got a great collection of Lovenia as i knew you would. Nice pictures by the way, i like when people include in-situ 'find it yourself' shots like that. Though on the day i know hard it can be to resist the urge to pick it up straight away and take the photo hahaha. 

[MikeR]

Hi Ken

 

Did you have to do anything special to get the fossils back to the states?  I have heard that a permit is needed to export any fossils from Australia regardless of how common they might be.

 

Mike

[digit]

Yup. Indeed I did. I checked online and found the information on the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986. I was able to locate an local fossil expert, a David Holloway, Senior Curator, Invertebrate Palaeontology, Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. I contacted him prior to my trip as I had in mind before the exact species I knew I would find and wanted to get my ducks in a row before making the collection. He knew Lovenia woodsi very well (it is common at the locality) and said it would be no problem exporting. After my collection all I needed to do was to show him photos of the specimens I had collected and he wrote me a letter of clearance should I be stopped and questioned about the echinoids upon exiting Australia. He said it would likely not be an issue at the airport (and it wasn't) but I like to do things by the rules and with a little pre-planning it was only a matter of a brief email exchange to do things the right way. I'm sure things would have been more complicated if I was to try to buy a first class seat for an articulated Diprotodon to take back with me.

 

Here's a starting link for any others traveling to Australia with hopes to bring back some fossil finds:

 

https://www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/cultural-heritage/movable-cultural-heritage/exporting-cultural-property-australia

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

P.S.: I collected a few more Lovenia than I had need for and I'm donating some to the FLMNH next week (when I go up there for a volunteer dig) and I've got a few on this round of the rolling auction so go make a bid before 3pm tomorrow and save yourself the travel and paperwork to own some of these cute little echinoids.

 

 

[fossisle]

Great trip report,lovely finds