These coastal areas are occupied by large crocodiles, wild razor back pigs, deadly jelly fish, with no human inhabitants with in 400 km. If something went wrong it would become extremely hazardous.
Any significant amounts of Amber were not yet know to be part of Australia fossil record so finding a scientist that could properly identify our discovery was a huge challenge , until we contacted Henk Godthelp , Suzanne Hand ,Mike Archer, and Dan Bickel who were willing to explore the possibility of this mysterious discovery.
Australia’s FIRST true AMBER
A successful grant application eventually secured an opportunity to study the highly fossiliferous Cape York amber material, with exquisite preservation of insect & botanical inclusions . An age determined from fossil insect inclusions studied to-date in the amber, suggest a maximum early Tertiary (Oligocene) age 24-34 million years.
Our story first began back in 1997 when we (Dale Wicks and Elizebeth Norris ) began to pick up unusual colored stones washing up on a remote beach along the East Coast of Capeyork peninsular .
We spent many days, exploring these costal sites recording detailed notes , and collecting what we suspected to be amber – we had no idea this would lead us on an amazing journey – Australia’s FIRST true significant amber Deposit.
There over 300 insect and Botanical inclusions documented, and some of these are currently being studied by Australian Entomologists and Scientists, many more inclusions are in the process of identification. Australian- Capeyork Amber has become very important & exciting and has now been listed with all other significant major world deposits .
There's nothing more exciting than a mystery - meaning there is still something out there to be discovered. Australians’ first true amber deposit has done just that. Discovered on the East coast of Australia giving scientist a RARE & unique opportunity to research and understand something new, as yet unrecorded in History.