Country History
The Fossil Lands of Victoria: Caves, Volcanoes, and the Science of Ancient Life
Beneath Victoria’s hills, plains, and volcanic craters lie some of Australia’s richest fossil archives — layers of ancient life preserved in limestone, ash, and clay. These deposits, found in places like Buchan, Tower Hill, Moorabool Valley, and the Otway Coast, record more than 30 million years of evolutionary history. They tell the story of rising seas, erupting volcanoes, shifting climates, and the arrival of both animals and people on Country.
For Indigenous communities, these fossils are not simply remnants of extinct life — they are ancestral traces, reminders of the deep memory of Country. In stories, the bones of giant beings — the “Old Ones” — form the hills and plains themselves. For scientists, Victoria’s fossil sites offer insights into climate change, species adaptation, and extinction, illuminating how life and landscape have evolved together (Flannery 1994; Boles 2006).
Together, they reveal that the land itself is alive with story — each rock and fossil a page from the living record of time.
Deep-Time and Cultural Timeline
The history of Victoria’s fossil lands begins during the Paleogene and Miocene epochs (roughly 65–5 million years ago), when vast rainforests covered southern Australia. Rivers carved valleys through ancient Gondwanan rocks, depositing sediments that trapped plants and animal remains. Early ancestors of koalas, kangaroos, and cassowary-like birds lived among towering myrtle and fig trees (Archer 1984).
By the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs (5 million–10,000 years ago), the continent had dried, and volcanic activity reshaped Victoria’s surface. Lava flows from Tower Hill, Mount Eccles (Budj Bim), and Mount Napier transformed wetlands and plains, preserving layers of ash and bone. During this time, megafauna such as Diprotodon, Thylacoleo, and Zygomaturus roamed the region, their bones settling into swamps and caves.
Indigenous oral histories recall these transformations: stories of fire, thunder, and the creation of new land. At Budj Bim, Gunditjmara traditions describe the eruption of the volcano, witnessed and remembered across generations — a record of human experience dating back more than 30,000 years (McNiven 2006). By the Holocene (the last 10,000 years), new animals, climates, and human practices emerged, shaping the ecosystems we see today. Yet the fossils remained — silent witnesses beneath the soil, waiting to reveal their lessons about survival and change.
Major Fossil Sites of Victoria
Buchan Caves (Eastern Victoria)
Carved into Devonian limestone, the Buchan Caves system is one of Victoria’s most important fossil and geological areas. Discovered by local communities and later studied by geologists in the 19th century, the caves preserve bones of extinct megafauna, including kangaroos, giant wallabies, and owls that fell into natural sinkholes during the Pleistocene (Rich et al. 1985). Stalactites and stalagmites built up around these remains, turning them into time capsules of ancient ecosystems. The surrounding forests and karst formations are part of Gunaikurnai Country, where stories link the limestone and waterways to ancestral beings who shaped the underground.
Tower Hill (Western Victoria)
Tower Hill, near Warrnambool, is a maar volcano formed by explosive eruptions roughly 30,000 years ago. Volcanic ash layers in and around the crater preserve charcoal, fossilised plant material, and animal bones, providing evidence of climate and vegetation before and after the eruption. Nearby Aboriginal artefacts and rock engravings confirm that ancestors witnessed the event — making it one of the oldest recorded volcanic eruptions in human history (Gill 1976; McNiven 2006). Today, Tower Hill is a nature reserve, home to emus, koalas, and wallabies, symbolising both destruction and renewal — a living fossil landscape of Country.
Lancefield Swamp (Central Victoria)
Located north of Melbourne, Lancefield Swamp is one of Australia’s largest fossil megafauna sites. Here, thousands of bones — mainly of Diprotodon, the giant wombat-like marsupial — were discovered buried in layers of clay and gravel. Scientists believe the swamp was a drying waterhole where herds of animals became trapped during droughts more than 30,000 years ago (Rich & Archer 1989). For the Taungurung and Wurundjeri peoples, such sites are sacred — resting places of ancestral beings whose presence shaped both land and law.
Port Campbell and Otway Coast
Along the Shipwreck Coast, fossil-bearing cliffs reveal a window into ancient marine environments. Layers of limestone and sandstone preserve shells, corals, fish, and whale bones dating back 10–20 million years. Inland, fossilised leaves and pollen trace the slow shift from rainforest to open woodland as climates cooled. The Otway Basin also contains the remains of early marsupials, crocodiles, and turtles from the Cretaceous period, hinting at a time when dinosaurs still roamed the continent’s northern reaches.
Budj Bim and Volcanic Plains
The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape — a UNESCO World Heritage site — is not only a record of Indigenous aquaculture but also a geological archive. Lava flows from Budj Bim created channels that preserved sediments, charcoal, and fossils of animals that lived alongside early Gunditjmara ancestors. In both geological and cultural terms, Budj Bim represents living fossil knowledge: the continuity between the ancient earth and its present custodians.
Fossils in Indigenous Knowledge and Story
Across Victoria, Indigenous peoples have long recognised fossil sites as sacred — places where the bones of the Old Ones lie. In Wadawurrung and Gunditjmara traditions, the forms of mountains, ridges, and stones are said to be the resting bodies of ancestral beings who created the rivers and plains. Such stories carry ecological truths: they describe extinct animals, changing climates, and ancient fires in ways that parallel scientific findings (Clarke 2009; Flood 1983).
For example, stories of giant birds or thunder lizards echo the presence of Genyornis and Megalania fossils in the region. The “wombat ancestors” that built valleys may refer to the Diprotodon. These oral histories represent an unbroken thread of observation — a human memory of deep time that bridges culture and science.
Science, Preservation, and Collaboration
Victoria’s fossil heritage has long attracted scientific interest. From 19th-century collectors like Frederick McCoy and William Blandowski to modern palaeontologists, research has revealed extraordinary details about extinct species and past climates. However, early scientific practices often removed fossils without consultation or cultural context. Today, collaborations between Traditional Owners, museums, and universities ensure that fossil study respects cultural heritage, land rights, and story.
Institutions such as Museums Victoria, Deakin University, and Monash University now work alongside Traditional Owners to co-manage fossil sites — combining carbon dating, sediment analysis, and Indigenous oral history to reconstruct Victoria’s environmental past.
Modern Science and Ecology
Fossils are more than relics; they are guides for future conservation. By studying ancient ecosystems, scientists can predict how modern species might respond to climate shifts. Fossil pollen reveals how vegetation changed after volcanic eruptions or droughts. Bones of extinct animals show how megafauna shaped soil and seed dispersal — processes mirrored by today’s kangaroos and wombats (Johnson 2006).
This integration of palaeoecology and Traditional ecological knowledge allows land managers to design cultural restoration projects that reconnect soil, species, and story. In this way, the fossil record becomes a living tool — helping Victorians care for Country as their ancestors once did.
Symbolism and Meaning
Cultural meaning: Fossil landscapes embody the memory of creation and transformation — where the bones of the earth tell stories of power, change, and renewal.
Scientific meaning: Fossils reveal how life evolved through climate cycles, extinction, and adaptation, offering insight for modern conservation.
Spiritual meaning: For Indigenous peoples, these sites are not graves but resting spirits — reminders that life is cyclical and Country holds memory.
To walk on Victoria’s fossil lands is to stand at the meeting point of story and science, where the earth itself remembers.
Conclusion
The fossil lands of Victoria are living archives of time — places where geology, biology, and spirit intertwine. From Buchan’s limestone caves to the volcanic plains of Budj Bim, the land holds the bones of ancient beings and the stories of those who witnessed their passing.
These fossils remind us that extinction and renewal are part of one cycle — that the same forces which shaped the past still shape the present.
By protecting these sites and listening to both scientific and Indigenous voices, we keep alive the deep memory of Country — ensuring that the earth’s ancient wisdom continues to guide the future.
References
Archer, M. (1984). The Australian Marsupial Radiation. Surrey Beatty, Sydney.
Boles, W.E. (2006). “Fossil Birds of Australia.” In Evolution and Biogeography of Australasian Vertebrates (Eds Merrick et al.), Auscipub, Sydney, pp. 387–429.
Clarke, P.A. (2009). Australian Aboriginal Ethnobotany and Palaeontology: Linking Story and Stone. Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.
Flannery, T. (1994). The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People. Reed Books, Sydney.
Flood, J. (1983). Archaeology of the Dreamtime. Collins, Sydney.
Gill, E.D. (1976). “Volcanic History of Tower Hill.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 88(2): 87–100.
Johnson, C.N. (2006). Australia’s Mammal Extinctions: A 50,000-Year History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
McNiven, I.J. (2006). “Budj Bim: Cultural Landscapes and Deep Time.” Australian Archaeology, 63: 1–6.
Rich, T.H. & Archer, M. (1989). Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution. UNSW Press, Sydney.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter 16/09/2025
Magic Lands Alliance
Sharing the truth of Indigenous and colonial history through film, education, land and community.
Copyright of MLA – 2025
Magic Lands Alliance acknowledge the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of communities.