The Canowindra site is listed as part of Australia's National Heritage because of its international scientific importance.
The Canowindra fauna is a very rich Late Devonian fish fauna. All of the fossil specimens are preserved on a single bedding plane, part of an ancient fish community which had been trapped in a pool of water which dried up, killing the fish.
Incoming sediments later buried these fishes quickly and quietly, with minor disturbance to the fish skeletons.
The Devonian Period, 416 - 359 million years ago, is known as the Age of Fishes, since the aquatic and marine environments were populated by large numbers and varieties of fishes.
Only later in the Devonian did the first tetrapods or four legged animals appear.
Plants were establishing themselves on land and by the Late Devonian some had reached tree size. Australia, as a part of the super-continent Pangaea, was drifting southwards away from the equator and was thus experiencing a general cooling.
There was also general uplift and by the Late Devonian there was less marine sedimentation but extensive terrestrial sedimentary basins, particularly in the east.
