Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh/Naracoorte)
698
Australia
N (i) (ii)
The Bureau had recommended the inscription of the site as Riversleigh/Naracoorte Fossil site, excluding the site of Murgon until its significance can be more convincingly demonstrated. The Committee noted that Riversleigh provides outstanding examples of middle to late Tertiary mammal assemblages and one of the world's richest Oligo-Miocene mammal records in a continent whose mammalian history has been most isolated and distinctive, whereas Naracoorte preserves an outstanding variety of terrestrial vertebrates and illustrates faunal change spanning two ice ages. Moreover, the Committee underlined that the inscription of the fossil sites is a new challenge, as there are only very few sites with fossil values on the List and that this inscription is a major precedent for the work of the Committee.
As suggested by the Australian authorities, the Committee decided that this site shall be inscribed on the World Heritage List as Australian Fossil Mammal sites (Riversleigh, Naracoorte).