Hamelin Pool Stromatolites - Interesting Stuff if you Take a Leap of Faith

A seagull sits on top of a stromatolite


There is more to the rocks than meets the eye in the super salty water of Hamelin Pool; the rocks here are alive. Not only are these seemingly innocuous formations living and breathing, they are also believed to be the oldest life forms on earth. Stromatalite fossils have been found to be at least 3.5 billion years old. So what are these seemingly lifeless yet life giving organisms?



Unspectacular glory - but stromatolites made the earth breathable

Knowing a little about these rocks from reading Bill Brysons Down Under we were eager to see them for ourselves and made the short walk from the campsite to the shore across the shell strewn landscape.



Our crunching footpath had been created by the Hamelin Cockle – a shell species so prolific in the Hamelin Pool area, that the sheer volume of shells has been compacted into a solid mass able to be cut into blocks.



Hamelin cockle beach

We walked past the old quarry, where huge blocks of this material had been cut out of the earth to be used as building blocks in the town of nearby Denham, where the church and a couple of other buildings have been made entirely from this material. At the beach a long jetty has now been constructed for the public to view the stromatalites without damaging them irreparably. It is possible to still see tracks in the rock made by cart wheels, a by product of the wool trade years ago . The carts would pull right up to the waters edge to unload their cargo onto the waiting boats. But back then nobody knew just how significant the rocks were beneath their feet.


Hamelin cockle quarry

A number of information points along the shore and jetty allow you to better interpret the strange formations before your eyes. However the stromatalites are not much to look at. Through a geologists or perhaps even a botanists eyes they are perhaps things of rare beauty. But to the untrained eye they...... well they just look like rocks. However whilst their appearance won't induce your jaw to drop with wonder and veneration, their sheer age and importance to life as we know it should elicit some response.



A live stromatolite which can be seen in the Hamelin Pool museum

There are very few known places where Stromatalites (or Sdromadalydes as they are called in Australia) still live on today. They are formed by cyanobacteria and other forms of algae. These single celled organisms bind sedimentary particles together in successive layers which eventually harden to form rock.




We gaze at the oxygen bubbles, trapped by algae, created by stromatolites


We were given a flagon of wine by our generous hosts and we gladly drank while we listened to stories of the area. Shane, a man with quick wit and the story telling ability of an Aussied up Hans Christian Anderson invited us to tour the museum.



Specimens found at Hamelin Pool museum

Tim got the keys and we all put our drinks down on the table. “No, no. You’re alright, take your drinks in with ya.” Walking around the many valuable objects of long ago, I couldn’t believe the casualness in a place where if it had been in England we would be behind a prohibiting fence, never mind being able to pick things up and walk around with red wine.



I wanted to have a closer look at some of the fossils so I put my wine down on one of the tables, as I did so I noticed that one of the very old museum pieces, a bottle, was full of cigarette butts, it was used as an ashtray. Part of me was astounded by the lack of respect in a place which holds such treasures but another part of me loved the unBritishness of the experience, the laid-back accessibility of everything I would elsewhere never be allowed to touch.




Bullet holes add a sinister touch to the Hamelin Pool sign




The naked guy up a telegraph pole that Bill Brysons talks of in his book



We love Hamelin Pool museum!







So much beauty can be found in Hamelin Pool's surrounding areas