Nilpena Ediacara National Park Tour | Ancient Fossils | Gekko Safari
When people sign up for a Lake Eyre tour, they expect salt and sky. What they don’t expect is a fossil site that stops them in their tracks. Nilpena Ediacara National Park is one of the highlights of our four day trip, and it’s often the part guests talk about most afterwards.
The fossils here belong to the Ediacaran period, roughly 550 million years ago, which is before most of the animals we think of as familiar. They’re soft-bodied creatures, preserved in the sandstone, and seeing them up close is a bit humbling. We take a guided tour of about an hour and a half, which includes the old woolshed, the blacksmith’s shop, an audio-visual presentation on the Ediacaran creatures, and a relocated fossil bed about nine metres long.
What makes it special
- It’s a window into some of the earliest complex life on the planet
- The site is on a former pastoral station, so there’s station history as well
- A guide explains what you’re looking at, which makes a big difference
- It sits on the drive south from Marree, so it fits neatly into the day
You don’t need any science background. If you can be amazed by something very old and very strange, you’ll enjoy it.
