00:00Locals describe Western Australia's Wharton Beach as a magical place, but a recent discovery
00:10has given that description new meaning.
00:12Pretty big stump.
00:14The Esperance Dalyarrak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation has been closely monitoring this
00:20beach ever since an unusual discovery in 2021.
00:25An extreme tide had revealed an unusual log which ranger Jeremy Smith found and had sent
00:31away to be radiocarbon dated.
00:33It came back 7,000 plus years of age, so it was a pretty cool find.
00:39It was extremely exciting news.
00:42It's a little time capsule that we've uncovered and it's just really the tip of the iceberg
00:48in terms of what we need to explore and study.
00:51Because the peat had been sealed over by sand and sea for so long, they hoped it might
00:56contain organic material from thousands of years ago.
01:00It's kind of like a gateway into a lost landscape of the past.
01:06Since then, that gateway to the past has been covered over again by the tide.
01:11But in early June, the Dalyarrak rangers made another discovery.
01:15The latest piece of ancient stump was sent to the University of New South Wales for testing.
01:21By measuring how much radiocarbon is left in the sample, we can determine how old it is.
01:26It's been two months since the rangers first dug the stump out of Wharton Beach.
01:31Today, they're finally going to learn how old it is.
01:34We divided the peat up into two samples and they were 6,870 years and 7,060 years.
01:44And the tree trunk is just a little bit older than that at 7,120 years.
01:49Just to see how old that is, is very amazing.
01:52The rangers are now excited at the prospect of uncovering more ancient stories about this
01:58unique part of Australia.
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