The people of Canowindra are hopeful the bulk of their famous fish fossils may be one step closer to moving out of storage and into a new $600,000 purpose built display building.
Branch Manager Life and Geosciences of the Australian Museum, Cameron Slatyer, was in Canowindra yesterday to discuss plans for the building, which will see the full collection of more than 200 fossil slabs brought out of the dark and into full public display.
It is expected the full collection on display will significantly increase visitation, especially within the scientific community with a complete examination room to be included in the development.
Cabonne Council and the Australian Mu- seum are currently in consultation to transfer the ownership of the fossils to the Australian Museum, which will provide the collection with heritage listing and registration.
More than 10,000 people visit the Age of Fishes Museum each year to view the re- markable story of the time when air breath- ing fishes with fins evolved into fishes with feet and our distant ancestors first stepped onto land.
Many thousands of complete fish speci- mens remain buried at the original site, awaiting excavation.