How did this end up in the rock ?

[Goldfreak]

Looks like a burnt bit of wood in hard stone. Is this how coal is formed ? How would have it got there and how old would it be ? I dont know much about fossils thpught someone here might know.

 

[WalnLiz]

Could be just a tree root that has been burnt by a previous fire some time ago. Coal is generally deeper and is formed by plants and forests being covered with earth and rock over millions of years ago. Pressure and resulting heat is what turns it into coal.

If the substance can be easily scraped away I'd lean toward it being a burnt tree root. If it's fairly hard then further research may be in order.

 

[Hawkear]

If you cannot tell with the a scrape as suggested by WalnLiz, look up a geo map of the area it was found in. That should tell you the age of the bedrock where you found it. (Presuming of course the specimen is bedrock).
If the age of the rocks are earlier than Carboniferous or Devonian, they are not coal bearing as the rocks of earlier periods were laid down in the time before land plants. Most of the bedrock of Australian gold fields belong to those earlier epochs.

 

[user 4386]

If you cannot tell with the a scrape as suggested by WalnLiz, look up a geo map of the area it was found in. That should tell you the age of the bedrock where you found it. (Presuming of course the specimen is bedrock).
If the age of the rocks are earlier than Carboniferous or Devonian, they are not coal bearing as the rocks of earlier periods were laid down in the time before land plants. Most of the bedrock of Australian gold fields belong to those earlier epochs.

Agree. But it does look a bit like classical Hawkesbury sandstone with a bit of fossil wood in it.