Work has started on the construction of a specially-built storage facility to house Canowindra’s famous fish fossils.
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The storage and research centre at the Age of Fishes Museum is being built to store the 350-million-year-old fossil slabs that are not already on display at the museum.
Funded by a $300,000 NSW government grant through the ClubGrants program and $300,000 from Cabonne Council, the building will provide a secure, tailor-made facility to house the fossils, as well as providing easy access for research purposes.
The fossils are of pre-historic fish and were discovered by chance in 1955 when a council grader driver turned over a large rock slab with strange impressions on its under surface.
Almost 40 years later, an exploratory dig uncovered about 80 tonnes of rock slabs containing around 4,000 fish fossil specimens.
The best of these fossil slabs are on display at the museum, but about 200 slabs are currently stored off-site in Canowindra.
The new building will enable all the slabs to be stored at the museum, fulfilling a long-term goal of Cabonne Council and the museum’s board.
Work is expected be completed within the next few months.
