40,000-year-old fossil forest discovered after storm

An ancient fossilised forest has emerged on Tasmania's Badger Beach, sparking debate over its origins and significance.

Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) shared photos of the ancient forest that was exposed after a recent storm , located at Badger Beach in Narawntapu National Park , Interesting Engineering reported on October 8. Although the event is rare and the tide would quickly bury the forest under sand, the sight has still attracted much interest in the type of trees growing in the forest and what type of fossils they are.

Remains of an ancient fossil forest. (Photo: PWS/Barbara Alsop).

In a photo posted by PWS on Facebook, the remains of the forest look like piles of algae from a distance, but are actually tree bark poking through the sand. The intact bark mixed with the rocks is part of an Ice Age forest, meaning the ancient trees are tens of thousands of years old. While some have called it a petrified forest, some experts disagree. They speculate that, despite its fossilized form, the forest is still intact and closer to its natural state.

PWS determined that the exposed forest contained both petrified and intact traces. In both cases, the lack of oxygen causes the wood to decompose. However, in the case of petrified, organic material turns into stone. According to PWS, the forest is about 40,000 years old. It is likely an ancient tea tree forest.

In March 2024, researchers found a fossil forest of low, palm-like trees that existed in what is now southwestern England during the mid-Devonian period, 390 million years ago. The forest is older than the fossil forest of Gilboa in New York State, which dates back 386 million years.

Famous for its open fields, coastal heaths, grasslands and abundance of marsupials such as kangaroos, Narawntapu National Park attracts 62,000 visitors each year.