Fossil Grove

When an old quarry was being landscaped as part of the work during the creation of Victoria Park in 1887 strange structures were found. The fossil trees uncovered by removal of the surrounding rocks are the remains of an ancient forest from around 330 million years ago.

These structures were identified as the fossil remains of an extinct type of plant known as a giant clubmoss.The most obvious feature of the site is the 11 fossil tree stumps, some of them up to 90 centimetres high, preserved in the position in which they once grew. A fallen trunk, about eight metres long, and other smaller fragments of branch and root, have also survived.