Paleontology in Australia

At the end of November i shall be moving to Australia, and as such have been given the opportunity by my parents to do as i like over there. I am rather interested in paleontology, and find the possible prospect of paleontology in Australia fascinating, but unfortunately my searching on google for paleontological groups and other such things in Australia has led me to nothing but dead ends and stories about 'flesh-eating kangaroo fossils' and urban myths about ship-wrecked Egyptian prince's in the Outback.

Anyone here happen to know anything about paleontology in Australia? At all?

Don't look for Paleontology, hardly anyone does it ... hence why most Paleontologists are sitting jobless at home.

Look for Hobby Archaeological Workgroups, they tend to cover the subject as well, and are mostlikely more active and larger.

Hmm I know someone who is. Cant remember the name though.

What part of Australia are you coming to?

If you come to Brisbane, me and sapi can be your welcome party!

I'm currently in college, going for a Sociology degree, concentration in Anthropology/Archeology

Pevergreen - Adelaide. Any orgah's living in Adelaide?

Kek - what exactly do you learn on this degree?

I don't know what Kek does, since she does Sociology.

But I study Archaeology (concentrated on the Archaeology of Northern Europe) and you simply learn about the history of the time, you learn how to research, how to excavate, but also things about anthropology, so that you can place some things into a context. But I'm really concentrating fully on Archaeology.

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Originally Posted by Mikeus Caesar

Pevergreen - Adelaide. Any orgah's living in Adelaide?

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Nah, most of us are on the East Coast. ie Sydney/Brisbane.

I know a few that arent part of here. 5 great blokes in the 20-30 range.

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Originally Posted by Mikeus Caesar

Kek - what exactly do you learn on this degree?

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At my university, Sociology is split up into three main groups: Sociology in general, Marriage/Family (for people going into social work), and Anthropology. I'm specializing in Anthropology.
Anthropology is essentially learning about other people's cultures, as well as your own, either past or present.
Cultural Anthropology is the study of the finer details of society, and how they differ from other societies. Why does America see eating dogs as a taboo, but the islanders of New Guinea see it in a different light? Why do some African tribes see neck stretching for women as sexy, whereas Americans see it as horrible?
Linguistic Anthropology is learning about the differences and history of language, how they progressed and how they blend. British English is essentially the same as American English, but you will find a lot of minute changed that make a whole world of difference. Even accents are studied, as Ebonics is a world apart from Southern.
Physical Anthropology is the study of our bodies throughout the ages. How we grew, how we evolved, etc. An offshoot of PA is Forensic Anthropology. These are the people you will see in real life CSI situations, studying the remains of humans and figuring out how they lived and how they died. They are also qualified to give testimony in court cases.
Archeology is the study of human material remains through the ages, and how they were used. They are not palaeontologists; you show an archaeologist a fossil and he'll think it's just a rock. The same is not true is if said rock was used as some sort of tool, which he would be specialized in figuring out.

And many more specializations.

Paleontology is pretty important in geology as it helps map the age of rocks... which in turn helps figure out where minerals/oil is.

As Australia is a giant mine site, geology is fairly important so there are quite a few geology courses at unis. Paleontology is taught as part of most geology courses in each year... some more then others, and not only geology is focused on the commercial aspects. If you're really into it look at a double major in geology (or geochemistry or geophysics if you want the $) and biology.

I did geophysics at uni... and am going on holidays to South Australia (Adelaide included) next week... it's 1400km away from Sydney.

Hm, that's a good point Pape, paleontology/geology also has it's uses in those fields. I never thought of that.

Even so, my main interest lies in the field of fossils and prehistoric animals and evolution. I'm one of the few people these days who wants to do something because they love it, irregardless of the money, or lack of, that they earn from it.

Some people might view it as foolish, but i'm not one to take heed of other peoples opinions of me.

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I'm one of the few people these days who wants to do something because they love it, irregardless of the money, or lack of, that they earn from it.

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Do you think I study Archaeology for the money of it :laugh4:

No, fossils are things that are hard to find, and human evolution is covered by Archaeology (we go about 5 million years back, everything after that is done by palaeontology.
I guess that there's more palaeontology if Aussieland tho, atleast than in Northern Europe, here everything is build up, you will have a hard time finding something over 1 million year old (over 10,000 years is difficult enough).

If you do it purely as a hobby you might want to inform at a university where they teach geology, they might be able to help you further.

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Originally Posted by pevergreen

What part of Australia are you coming to?

If you come to Brisbane, me and sapi can be your welcome party!

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I'm a Queenslander, Brisbane. Broncos can not be beaten.

Sorry for useless post, I just wanted to state...


I do know some stuff. You might want to check out Stradbroke Island. There is a guy there who reckons the Spanish Landed there with a ton of gold, and they settled there but... Then on nothing. They've actually found pieces of Spanish Giold. Northern Stradbroke near the port, might be a good place.