The crater was discovered by the
geologist R. J. Ford in 1972, after a search for the source of
Darwin glass, an
impact glass found over more than of southwestern Tasmania.
Geophysical investigations and
drilling have shown that the crater is filled with up to of
breccia capped by
Pleistocene lake
sediments. Although definitive proof of an impact origin of the crater is lacking, the impact hypothesis is strongly supported by the relationship of the glass to the crater, as well as the
stratigraphy and
deformation of the crater-filling material. Carbonaceous inclusions have been found for the first time in Darwin glass: these have been shown to be biomarkers which survived the Darwin impact and are representative of plant species in the local ecosystem—including cellulose, lignin, aliphatic biopolymer and protein remnants.{{cite journal | author = Howard, K.T. |author2=Bailey, M.J. | year = 2013 | title = Biomass preservation in impact melt ejecta | journal = Nature Geoscience | volume = 6 |issue=12 | pages = 1018–1022 | doi = 10.1038/NGEO1996 ==Drilling==