Diseases of the past like measles and diphtheria are making a comeback.

Extract from ABC News

• By Rachael Merritt

• Topic:Infectious Diseases

16 minutes ago

Health authorities are concerned by rising cases of diseases once considered uncommon in Australia. (Public Record Office Victoria )

Contracting a case of measles and enduring the fever, cough, sore eyes and characteristic red rash was a common part of growing up before vaccination was introduced.

The disease was so rampant in Australia that anyone born before the late 1960s is thought to be immune, as it's likely they've already had the disease as a child.

Since then, Australia has eliminated the highly-contagious virus through a vaccination campaign and has held the status of an endemic measles-free country for more than a decade.

Vaccination helped Australia eliminate measles — but there has been a recent outbreak in SA. (Centres for Disease Control)

A recent outbreak in South Australia spreading within a school community has sparked concern from health authorities, but it's not the only uncommon disease that has recently spiked in cases.

Australia is also experiencing the largest diphtheria outbreak since records began, with the cases predominantly among Indigenous people in outer regional and remote areas across four states and territories.

So what's happening and why?

Where are measles cases coming from?

The World Health Organisation declared Australia free of endemic measles in 2014, meaning there is no ongoing local transmission within the population, although cases can still be brought in from overseas.

After decades of effective vaccination, childhood diseases once considered to be things of the past are rebounding. (Reuters: Lucy Nicholson )

South Australia's latest outbreak was sparked by the return of a traveller who contracted the disease overseas and had since spread it to three other students and an adult in their 40s, who was hospitalised, within the Brighton Secondary School community.

Contract tracing is being undertaken after the adult spent more than 24 hours at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's emergency department.

The outbreak takes SA's measles total so far this year to nine, the highest since 2016.

According to SA's Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier, it was a "disappointing" development but not altogether surprising given anti-vaccination misinformation.

Professor Nicola Spurrier says she has seen children die from vaccine preventable diseases during her time as a junior registrar. (ABC News; Che Chorley)

"I have seen our vaccination rates year on year since the [COVID-19] pandemic starting to drop … I see what information is being provided in other forms other than the science," Professor Spurrier told the ABC.

"In my past practice when I was a junior registrar, I'd see little ones die from these infectious diseases and it's always been so wonderful when we'd get new vaccines."

Why is measles coming back?

Adelaide University professor and epidemiologist Adrian Esterman said measles vaccine access was also a contributing factor to the sliding rates.

"It's things like parents being very busy, trouble getting to see the GP, I think it's more things like that rather than people hesitating to get their children vaccinated," Professor Esterman said.

He said cases of measles have also been surging overseas. 

"Canada has now lost its measles-free status, the UK has lost its measles-free status, the USA is almost certainly going to be losing it shortly," he said.

"I hope we don't lose ours, it's not likely at the moment, but it's something that we don't want to see."

Epidemiologist Adrian Esterman says decades ago, the diseases were regarded as "absolute killers" in Australia. (ABC News: Carl Saville)

Professor Esterman said measles, diphtheria and even whooping cough, which saw a national spike in cases in 2024, are all examples of childhood diseases which are making a comeback due to declining childhood vaccinations.

"All of these various childhood diseases, they used to be absolute killers 80-100 years ago," he said.

"Most families had large numbers of children because they knew so many would actually die during the first year."

What's happening with the diphtheria outbreak?

The latest surge of diphtheria infections — the largest outbreak in Australia since records began in 1991 — has now risen to more than 600 cases, 22 of which were in SA.

Vigilance urged as diphtheria cases pass 500

There have been more than 500 cases of diphtheria across Australia this year, as governments work to mitigate the largest outbreak since records began.

The highly contagious bacterial infection, which affect the nose, throat, airways or the skin, is treated with antibiotics and vaccination is considered the primary line of defence against the disease.

SA Health said cases have been plateauing in recent weeks as more than 4,500 vaccines have been delivered to communities in the far north and south-west.

"Up in the APY Lands where we've had the majority of the cases, there has been really high vaccinations so we're extremely pleased with the community's response," Professor Spurrier said.

Switzerland's 'wake-up call' as glaciers melt in record-breaking summer.

Extract from ABC News

By Europe bureau chief Mazoe Ford

• Topic:Global Warming

about 3 hours ago

A drone view from July shows the retreat of the Rhone glacier.  (Reuters: Pierre Albouy)

In short: 

Scientists in Switzerland have warned global warming is having a dire effect on the country's glaciers.

New research claims more than 5 per cent of Swiss ice volume has melted this year alone.

What's next?

Glaciologist Mattias Huss told the ABC "we need to stabilise global warming" in order for the ice to recover.

Europe's record-breaking summer, after a winter of little snow, has led to "staggering" melting on Switzerland's famous glaciers, with more than 5 per cent of the country's ice melting in 2026.

That is according to a new report released by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (GLAMOS) and the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation of the Swiss Academy of Sciences.

"Glaciers have already retreated continuously, more or less, over the past 100 years, but what we are seeing now is really unprecedented," Matthias Huss, the director of GLAMOS, told the ABC.

"We've seen glaciers disappearing, we've seen them retreating, shrinking enormously.

"And it's really a different vision of the Swiss Alps we have today than 20 years ago."

Glaciologist Matthias Huss is concerned at the affect climate change is having on the ice. (Reuters: Denis Balibouse)

Dr Huss and his team study about 20 Swiss glaciers in detail.

They use a combination of traditional and modern techniques — first drilling holes into the ice to measure its thickness, then using virtual elevation models and satellites.

At one of the most researched glaciers, the Rhone glacier in southern Switzerland, Dr Huss said there was record melting.

"We've lost 10 metres in thickness during just the four summer months," he said.

"It was really incredible for us to come back every time [we took measurements] and then see how fast it went back."

A drone view shows glaciologists Matthias Huss, right, and Raphael Moser working on the Rhone glacier. (Reuters: Pierre Albouy)

The Head of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich University, Professor Sonia Seneviratne, said many heat records were broken in Switzerland over the summer.

"It was an extremely hot summer, we had several heatwaves, starting in May," she told the ABC.

"What was special this year was that summer started very early, [then] there was a particularly strong heatwave in June, and it was also very long."

The difference in the amount of ice on the Rhone glacier at the Furkapass can be seen when images from September 13, 2018 (top) and July 2, 2026 (below) are compared. (Supplied: Denis Balibouse via Reuters)

Professor Seneviratne said the effects of global warming were being felt particularly severely on Switzerland's glaciers.

"This summer was a bit of a wake-up call. It became a really strong topic in the media and also in politics," she said.

Dr Huss said glaciers are extremely sensitive to shifts in global temperature and provide "one of the most beautiful illustrations of climate change".

"People realise what is happening if they see the ice disappearing," he said.

"It's much easier to grasp glacier retreat than climate change as a whole, because that's difficult to feel.

"But glaciers are important in the Alps and also worldwide because they provide a lot of water in drought periods and heatwaves exactly when we need it."

Reflective polyester fleece blankets are being used in some areas to try and combat melting ice. (Reuters: Pierre Albouy)

The GLAMOS report showed that over the past five years, Swiss glaciers have shed almost one-fifth of their ice, threatening future water supplies and raising questions about the long-term survival of Europe's ice fields.

While glacier melt has helped ease summer water shortages, this benefit reduces over time as ice-covered areas shrink and glaciers become smaller.

"We need to stabilise global warming," Dr Huss said.

"Reducing CO2 emissions will stabilise the climate and will, with some delay, also stabilise glaciers, but we have to be aware that for many of the small glaciers in the Alps it's already too late, we can't save them."

For more than two decades, Swiss authorities have used large, reflective polyester fleece blankets to cover parts of glaciers to slow seasonal melting.

While it is effective, it's impractical and too expensive to cover entire glaciers, and it has been described as a bandaid solution to the effects of global warming.

The strategy also sheds synthetic fibres into the environment. But there is a study under way to see if wool from Switzerland's sheep — much of which is discarded every year — could be used instead.

Iraq 'excursion into hell' may be over, but there's no end in sight for today's worsening conflicts.

Extract from ABC News

Analysis

By Laura Tingle

• Topic:World Politics

about 3 hours ago

Donald Trump observed this week that the US's ventures into Iraq this century have been a "very expensive excursion into hell". (Reuters: Eric Lee)

There has been a tendency to give a low mark for veracity to many of the utterances of US President Donald Trump in recent times.

But many might find themselves agreeing with his observation this week that the American ventures into Iraq this century have been a "very expensive excursion into hell".

His comments came as the US military announced it had completed its withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq.

"It's been a long time with very bad decision making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place," Trump said. "It was a quagmire. For many, many years it lasted. But soon that part of history will be over."

Members of the Iraqi security forces celebrated the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq this week. (Reuters: Alaa Al-Marjani)

Given the war against Iran — which he claimed would only take a couple of weeks — is now in its eighth month, with no end in sight (and possibly even a resurgence), there seemed to be some characteristic chutzpah in Trump's remarks.

He compared the sad US story in Iraq to his administration's actions in Venezuela, and even to the Iran war in terms of the number of US casualties.

But what so many of the current major global conflicts have in common with the debacle in Iraq is their undefined, or sometimes not truthfully defined, missions.

The lack of definition so often explains why there is no end in sight to them and why they seem to only be spreading and escalating by the day.

What happens next is unclear

What happens next in Iraq is not clear. It is already embroiled in the Iranian war, due to the involvement of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. There are concerns that the United States' withdrawal will also leave a broader vacuum in a still fragile and unstable state.

Trump continues to prevaricate over his next moves against Iran: deploying thousands more troops and a third aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East, but still flip-flopping about both his bargaining position and the goal of the whole exercise.

The US is talking more again about foiling Iran's nuclear capabilities, rather than regime change or opening the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump rejects Iran's deal to reopen Strait of Hormuz

Iran's proposal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week, according to its Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, but Donald Trump has already rejected the deal.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz claimed this week that Iran is enriching uranium to 60 per cent with "no credible civilian purpose".

But with the US mid-term elections only a month away and current indications that the Republicans face a drubbing, most analysts believe Trump will be reluctant to escalate action against Iran before November 3.

A poll this week found 71 per cent of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of Iran and the war.

Trump's ally in that war — Benjamin Netanyahu — faces his own election even sooner, with Israel going to the polls on October 27.

Netanyahu under pressure

There was an extraordinary escalation this week in what it is hard not to see as external interventions in the Israeli election campaign.

Over the course of September, there has been revelation after revelation about Netanyahu's knowledge of, and therefore culpability for, the greatest lapse in Israeli intelligence in its history, which in turn led to the horrors of October 7.

There have been revelations piling up from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic magazine.

All document claims that Netanyahu was directly warned before October 7 that Hamas was planning a major attack, and that those warnings came from no less than the president of the United Arab Emirates and the head of the Egyptian Intelligence Service.

Once the shock and relief of the flydubai incident had eased, the political brawl has all been about Netanyahu. (Reuters: Ronen Zvulun)

Netanyahu branded the stories as "lies". But tellingly, other governments have not denied them.

The former head of Israel's domestic counter-intelligence agency Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, also announced he will sue Netanyahu for defamation over the PM's claims he was not told of any threats by his officials, saying he had warned the PM "of an impending disaster, and he ignored me".

And then came the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani who, as part of a broad attack on Netanyahu as a "war criminal", told British broadcaster Piers Morgan that Qatar had been involved in negotiations with Hamas immediately after the October 7 attacks, approaching Israel with a proposal to release civilian hostages in exchange for a temporary ceasefire window.

According to Al Thani, Israeli officials declined to engage with the proposal, responding that Hamas should release the captives without receiving anything in return.

His statements appeared to confirm earlier reporting that there had been a window in which the Israeli government could have got at least the young and old hostages back from Gaza, but refused to act.

Netanyahu reportedly warned about Hamas attack

With only weeks to go until elections in Israel, an unrelenting stream of well-sourced, detailed stories has suddenly appeared, documenting multiple failures by Benjamin Netanyahu to heed warnings of a possible Hamas strike.

It was hard to escape the impression that even some of those Gulf states closer to Israel had formed the view that there was little chance of stability being gained with Netanyahu in office and were emerging to confront Israeli voters with what they believed was the Israeli PM's record.

All these claims were starting to put intense pressure on Netanyahu in a political environment of a knife-edge election campaign.

There seemed the slightest whiff of panic when Netanyahu emerged on Tuesday to claim there were new "indications that … our enemies will try to attack us" ahead of the October 27 vote.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the threat or give any details — prompting Opposition scepticism and reported denials from officials and the Israeli Defence Force.

The Jerusalem Post reported officials saying there was "currently no specific intelligence warning on the table".

Opposition parties demanded a briefing. Afterward, opposition leader and founder of the centrist Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, criticised Netanyahu, saying there was no reason to panic the public, and that if the PM was so worried about security, he should draft the ultra-orthodox Jews who currently had an exemption from military service.

The flydubai shock turns into a brawl

Then came the extraordinary story of the flydubai plane and the apparent attempt by the co-pilot to crash it, imperilling 174 people flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

Such is the political mood in Israel now that, once the shock and relief of the near-miss had eased, the political brawl has all been about Netanyahu.

His opponents have accused him of trying to exploit the incident. His supporters have argued it shows he had been right to issue the unspecified alarm (even though he conceded later there had been no reference to an attack on a commercial airliner).

Israel's election is being fought in an environment where its own war aims — in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, and Syria — seem likely to create as much of a mire as Iraq once did.

Another war that was supposed to only take its aggressors a few weeks until victory drags on, with the rhetoric only escalating by the day between Russian President Vladamir Putin and NATO, as Putin finds himself bogged down in the frontline battle in Ukraine.

Alarmingly, Russia now paints NATO as the aggressor, sending the Western military alliance a letter this week threatening to use its nuclear weapons if NATO hinders its access to the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.

Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned this week that Europe is preparing for "severe" Russian hybrid attacks, after Putin threatened that his conflict with the West could reach a "fatal point of no return".

The world now seems to be facing a much broader, multi-fronted and expensive incursion into hell, than it did in Iraq.

Laura Tingle is the ABC's Global Affairs Editor.

Battle to define the Anthropocene Epoch reignites.

Extract from ABC News

By science reporter Jacinta Bowler

• ABC Science

• Topic:Geology

about 2 hours ago

The Ivy Mike test, where the first hydrogen thermonuclear device detonated, is argued by some geoscientists to be the start of a new geological epoch. (Supplied: US National Nuclear Security Administration)

In short:

Anthropocene is a popular term for the current time in history but is not an official geological age.

A proposal put forward by a group of scientists in 2024 to declare when the epoch started was rejected. 

What's next:

The scientists said the decision was flawed and voting should be opened up more widely.

In 1952 the first full-yield test of a hydrogen bomb erupted not far from Naoero, mushroom cloud billowing above the Pacific Ocean.

That first test, and many more, spread plutonium-239 and -240 around the world marking the moment Earth entered a new era of humanity known as the Anthropocene. 

At least that's according to a group of scientists who have spent years trying to pin down a date.

Georg Schäfer, a geoanthropologist, from the Max Planck Institute said that the Anthropocene moves from the period when "agriculture, cities, and human culture developed" into an era of "industrialised humanity".

"The particular strength of the Anthropocene is that it brings the many crises of the present into a single analytical frame," Dr Schäfer said.

"From coral reefs dying to microplastic pollution, climate change and forever chemicals."

But while the term has been used in popular culture for more than two decades, the Anthropocene is not an official geological epoch. 

Crawford Lake in Canada was rejected as the "global boundary stratotype section and point" of the Anthropocene in 2024.  (Flickr: Sean Marshall, CC BY-NC 2.0)

In 2024, a team of international scientists — the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) — put forward evidence that the transition to a new epoch lay under the sludge at the bottom of a Canadian lake.

But the proposal was rejected by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the peak global geosciences body, which decides what is an epoch and what is not.

"Whether it meets the criteria is not for us to judge," Dr Schäfer, an AWG member said.

"But … the evaluation by the geological institutions left too many questions open about serious procedural flaws. 

"The 2024 vote was supposed to settle the scientific status of the Anthropocene. Instead, the opaque process created confusion."

The researchers have just released a new commentary, published today in the journal Earth's Future, calling for an independent review of the IUGS's process, and for the release of more records. 

"It is perfectly possible that the full record would show the process was sounder than it looks from the outside, that’s a perfectly fine outcome," Dr Schäfer said. 

"This closed-door approach undermines the IUGS's own authority at a moment when society depends on sound environmental science more than ever."

Why do epochs matter?

Scott Mooney, a geographer at the University of New South Wales who was not involved in the working group, said understanding when humanity's fingerprint on Earth started was a "really big question".

Currently, according to the IUGS, we are in the Holocene epoch, which started 11,700 years ago at the end of the last glacial maximum.

This period is characterised by warmer temperatures, megafauna going extinct, and humans moving from hunter-gatherer societies to farming.

This boundary between the current Holocene and the previous epoch, the Pleistocene can be seen in an ice core from the Greenland ice sheet.

Ice cores have been used as golden spikes for certain epochs. (Supplied: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Ludovic Brucker)

There are dozens of these boundary markers, known as global boundary stratotype section and point or "golden spikes", around the world.

The AWG selected Crawford Lake in Canada as the "golden spike" for the start of the Anthropocene, highlighting the plutonium from nuclear testing as part of a sediment core at the location.

There was supporting evidence from 11 other sites worldwide, including Flinders Reef in Queensland. 

But the IUGS resoundingly rejected the proposal.

"The outcome was a decisive rejection of the Anthropocene proposal: four votes in favour; 12 votes against; and three abstentions," they wrote in a statement at the time.

"It is clear from the comments that were made during the course of the discussion period, that many were unconvinced by the arguments in the AWG proposal, and their misgivings are clearly reflected in the decisive nature of the voting outcome."

Vote exposes rift between scientists

According to Helen Bostock, an oceanographer at the University of Queensland, the voting process felt "incredibly rushed". 

Professor Bostock is a member of an IUGS subcommittee and voted on the proposal. 

She was one of the four people who voted in the Anthropocene's favour, but says she felt they were "kept out of the loop" for the process. 

"It was like, here's the information, you must vote by next week," she said. 

She said there was a "rift" between different fields of geology —  those who worked in hard rocks, and those who worked in softer rocks, and this likely was spilling over to issues such as the Anthropocene proposal. 

"There's some of these old-school geologists who still think that it's too soon, [that it] needs to be a decent length of time before you can actually say something changed in the past,"

Professor Bostock said.

"Some of us are working on the sediments that show these human activities are having an impact on our environment. There's really no denying it when you can actually measure it and see it in your samples."

The golden spike at Enorama Creek in South Australia's Flinders Ranges which marks the boundary of the Ediacaran Period — from 635 million years ago to 542 million years ago. (Flickr: James St. John, CC BY 2.0)

Professor Bostock said that if the Anthropocene proposal was to be resubmitted, a fairer way to adjudicate would be a "broad vote" from the larger discipline rather than a small group. 

"I think that would give us a much better representative, instead of a committee that might be biased in one way or another, depending on who's sitting on that committee."

Dr Mooney broadly agreed with the working group's argument about why Anthropocene should be formalised as an epoch.

"It really does highlight the impact that humanity is having on Earth," he said. 

"The really good point [the group] makes is that the Anthropocene is out there — it's not just geoscientists that use [the term] — it's everyone."

EV sales double in Australia as one in four new cars now electric.

 Extract from ABC News

By climate reporter Nathan Morris

• Topic:Electric Vehicles

17 hours ago

Electric cars have become mainstream in Australia, which has been lagging in the uptake of the technology. (Reuters: Stella Qiu)

An electric car is being sold every 100 seconds in Australia, but there is still a long road ahead to decarbonise the country's transport sector, according to the Electric Vehicle Council.

The 10th anniversary edition of the annual State of Electric Vehicles Report shows how EVs have become mainstream within a decade, making up one in four new cars sold.

Sales have more than doubled within a year and last month, EVs outsold petrol and diesel cars for the first time.

"EVs are being taken up as a cost of living measure by households across Australia," Julie Delvecchio, CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council, said.

Owning an EV is no longer a luxury reserved for well-heeled inner-city dwellers as electric cars come close to price parity with petrol versions. Some are now selling for under $20,000.

Electric cars are no longer more expensive than petrol cars, with some models selling under $20,000. (Facebook: Electric Vehicle Council)

This year's sales boom is being driven by suburban commuters, with the highest EV uptake in Tarneit, about 30 kilometres west of Melbourne.

"It's very much an average Australian suburb with people who have mortgages in the six to seven hundred thousands," Aman Gaur, the EVC's Head of Legal, Policy and Advocacy, said.

"They rely on their cars, they do not have access to three forms of public transport outside their front door, and for them, the sensible economic choice is to get into an EV."

Australians now have access to nearly 200 electric models, and incentives such as the fringe benefit tax exemption have helped to drive uptake.

The beginning of the conflict with Iran in February and the subsequent disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has seen fuel prices to surge this year, helping to further push the number of EVs currently on the road to more than 600,000.

"Australia is an island at the end of a long fuel supply chain, holding weeks' worth of reserves and importing almost all of its fuel," the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) report said.

"Every car that plugs in instead of filling up is a permanent upgrade to our energy security."

Long road to meet climate goals

While 2026 may well become a turning point for passenger EVs, reaching Australia's climate targets will require a revolution in the national fleet.

There are about 21 million cars on Australian roads, and EVs make up just 3 per cent compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

"While the doubling of EV uptake over the last year is great news, Australia needs to maintain this momentum to be on track to reach its climate targets," Helen Rowe, the transport lead at the Monash University's Climateworks Centre, said.

The EVC report notes that Australia's EV uptake is not on track to meet the emission reduction targets of 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and 62 to 70 per cent by 2035.

"That 2035 target requires 5 million battery electric cars on the road by the middle of the next decade—a significant increase in pace from the current trajectory," the EVC's report said.

All consumers to pay for EV chargers

A bitter fight is brewing between EV charging companies and poles-and-wires companies, and now a regulator has weighed in.

The other hurdle is charging infrastructure; it's increasing, but not quite keeping pace, according to the EVC's Aman Gaur.

"We do need to have a coordinated charging plan that will help Australians have confidence that they can get out onto the roads and charge either their car or their truck or their van," he said.

Addicted to diesel

Per capita, Australia uses more diesel than the US, China and Saudi Arabia.

And the biggest user of diesel is the transport and freight sector, which has barely started to electrify.

That's not because there are no electric trucks; while still more expensive, there are a growing number of options.

"China, the undisputed leader on truck electrification, saw monthly sales breach 50 per cent in December 2025 and already appears advanced in meeting its new 2030 target for 40 per cent heavy electric truck sales," The EVC report said.

Most freight operators in Australia are small businesses, running on very tight margins, and according to the EVC's Aman Gaur, the cost of switching to electric trucks was still prohibitive.

"There aren't enough financial incentives to get small mum and dad operators to make the switch to electric, which means that Australia is still importing diesel and our economy is still reliant on those imports," he said.

The EVC report called Australia a "global laggard" when it came to adopting electric trucks, with heavy vehicle rules such as road weight limits "complex and notoriously difficult to reform."

"With almost zero policy support and no dedicated charging infrastructure to speak of, electric trucks are yet to hit even 1 per cent of total truck sales.

"This contrasts with European markets and New Zealand, where strong freight electrification policies are moving heavy EVs beyond the 'early adopter' cohort to everyday trucking fleets.

"Electrifying Australia's heavy freight vehicles is the biggest unseized opportunity in Australia's energy transition."

Scientists to use Adavale Basin fossils to unlock secrets of giant fish.

Extract from ABC News

By Crispian Yeomans

• ABC Western Qld

• Topic:Palaeontology

15 hours ago

An artist impression of an ancient reef similar to what has been discovered under the Australian outback. (Supplied: Flinders University/Brian Choo)

In short:

A deep-drilling exploration of an ancient basin has uncovered fossilised corals, trilobites and unseen rock combinations.

Scientists will use samples to determine how ancient Devonian-era fish grew so big.

What's next?

The fossils will help scientists understand the seabed's history, but geologists did not find a salt layer they were looking for.

For millions of years, outback Queensland has hidden an ancient coral reef deep beneath its surface.

Scientists hope the discovery of ammonite, coral and fern fossils, as well as a kilometre-long solid rock core, could help unravel marine mysteries dating back more than 325 million years.

Geologists from Geoscience Australia found the specimens after drilling a 3-kilometre-deep hole in western Queensland to collect hundreds of rock and groundwater samples from the ancient Adavale Basin.

Experts say the fossils offer insight into life in the Devonian era, when the world was warmer, sea levels were higher and the reef now buried beneath outback Queensland teemed with marine life.

"Often we hear about things that are found at the surface," said Espen Knutsen, a senior curator from the Queensland Museum.

"But they might forget about all the stuff that's still hundreds of metres underground."

Reef fossils extracted, but no salt

Geoscience Australia drilled to a depth three times the height of the world's tallest skyscraper as part of a $30.9 million project about 63 kilometres south-east of Blackall in western Queensland.

It was meant to find eastern Australia's only known rock salt deposit, the Boree Salt layer, which geologists had hoped could be turned into an underground hydrogen battery.

But Geoscience Australia's Mitchell Bouma said the deposit was not there — at least not in form.

Instead, the agency found fossilised corals, sea sponges, ammonites and trilobites, providing fresh evidence of a "relatively rich reef ecosystem" buried underneath Australia.

"We did not find any salt, but we did intercept other types of evaporative rocks, [which] are formed by the evaporation of a highly saline lake or cut-off ocean," Mr Bouma said.

"What this really means is that the halite rock salt was there but was dissolved from this location somewhere around 325 to 370 million years ago."

Unravelling the secrets of giant fish

Some of the specimens have attracted international attention, including rocks that could help explain why prehistoric fish grew so big.

Geologist Geoffrey Gilleaudeau from George Mason University in the United States visited Australia in July to inspect some of the limestone samples.

Geoscience Australia has retrieved rock core samples from the Adavale Basin. (Supplied: Geoscience Australia)

He said larger fish and animals needed more oxygen, and he wanted to investigate whether the Adavale Basin fossils were evidence of a major rise in ocean oxygen levels, as previously detected in North America.

"We're trying to see if that's a global signal, and that's why we're looking at another place which is very, very far away in the Adavale Basin in Queensland," Dr Gilleaudeau said.

Why are geologists drilling so far underground?

Scientists hope to find salt caverns older than the dinosaurs to solve Australia’s green energy storage problem.

Dr Knutsen said little was known about the ancient reefs buried underneath Australia.

In 2007, a Geological Survey of Queensland report found a "rich, varied and largely undescribed" fossil record of corals, molluscs and algae in the Bury Limestone under outback Queensland.

Dr Knutsen said most of those fossils were only ever surfaced by mining companies or during deep-earth exploration.

"Who knows what we might be able to find if we could really, really just sort of dig through and see what kind of fossils it preserved?" he said.