Riversleigh World Heritage
Riversleigh is a designated World Heritage Area in recognition of its value as a repository for many of Australia’s most extraordinary extinct megafaunal animals.
Riversleigh (Queensland) and Naracoorte (South Australia) were jointly inscribed on the World Heritage List as Australian Fossil Mammal Sites in 1994.
Riversleigh meets two of the ten World Heritage criteria:
- Outstanding examples representing major stages of earth’s history
- Outstanding examples representing significant ongoing ecological and biological processes.
The core purpose of the Riversleigh World Heritage Advisory Committee is to provide expert advice to ensure that Australia continues to meet its obligations under the World Heritage Convention to protect, conserve and present this World Heritage property.
The Committee comprises esteemed members highly accomplished in Palaeontology, Earth & Environmental Sciences; the Australian World Heritage Advisory Committee; the Queensland Department of Environment; and Waanyi representatives.
Professor Michael Archer, renowned Palaeontologist specialising in Australian vertebrates, and member of the Riversleigh World Heritage Advisory Committee:
“Making Riversleigh into a World Heritage Area involved recognition of the enormous importance of these fossil deposits in terms of helping us understand the history of this continent and enabling us to use these fossils to help save Australia’s endangered living animals.”
