Permian Bed

Scientific: Agathis robusta - Common: Kauri Pine 
Scientific: Calathea sp - Common: Zebra plants 
Scientific: Cyathea cooperi - Common: Tree Fern 
Scientific: Dianella caerulea - Common: 'Aranda' Blue Flax Lily 
Scientific: Macrozamia communis - Common: Burrawang 
Scientific: Philodendron bipinnatifidum - Common: Philodendron 
Scientific: Philodendron Xanadu - Common: Philodendron

This bed is populated by ancient life. The origins of these plants can be traced back to the Permian era. Plants like these formed the Hunter Region's coal.

280 million years ago, Newcastle was dominated by swamps filled with trees and ferns. A combination of river systems depositing sediments and volcanic eruptions blanketing the region in ash started the geological process of forming coal. Plant matter was covered by this sediment and ash faster than it could decompose. The weight of the overlying deposits compacted the plant matter and increased the temperature and pressure. This evacuated water, carbon dioxide, and methane from the plant matter and enriched it with carbon, forming coal.

Awabakal people called coal Nikin, and they have their own dreaming of how it was formed. Nikin was used in traditional manufacturing, trade, and medicine. Europeans began mining coal soon after arriving here. Small drift mines were cut into the sides of cliffs around the mouth of the Hunter River. These simple workings gave way to complex underground mines across the region and the open-cut mines of today.

When burned, coal releases carbon into the earth's atmosphere and is a significant contributor to the world's climate emergency.
 

See in the museum:

Location: Foyer
Label: Araucarioxylon Fossil Tree and Wollemi Pines

Location: A Newcastle Story
Label: Archway 2 - Fossils

Location: Coal Gallery
Label: Introduction Panel