Holes in sandstone

Hi all,
Not sure if this is the right spot to post, but does anyone know what might have caused these holes in the sandstone?

I found it on a beach in wollongong, nowhere near any other rocks.
Thanks.

gravel/sand worn the water swirls around in a cycle and with it brings small sand in possibly harder types of sand than sandstone like small grains of corundum witch sapphires are from corundum being around 9 on the hardness scale (10 a diamond 1 chalk) means the sandstone witch is around 5 to 6 on the hardness scale gets worn away by the harder sand particles with the help of water.

I hope this makes some sense and not too hard on understanding.

Nail on the head hty, what I would have said

So it wasnt ET then????

If it is a sedimentary rock then perhaps they are fossil worm/crustacean burrows?

Echinoderms, a.k.a. sea urchins Brendomac.

Wow,
Thanks for those answers. So from what I've read is either sea creatures (maybe ET, haha) or wear from sea action and harder rocks.

The third hole from the left was interesting, the hole looked more like it had been bored, so maybe that is a creature? Not sure.

Its a really interesting occurrence, can't say I'd noticed it before.

Thanks for the info guys.

Lefty said:

If it is a sedimentary rock then perhaps they are fossil worm/crustacean burrows?

Click to expand...

it could be but 2 of the holes are very close together indicating gravel worn by water. another thing to add with certain worm fossils is that if it was a worm fossil there would be a cycle on both sides of the sandstone at the exactly the same position as the hole on the other side however if the holes on both sides don't line up strait with each other I would suspect gravel/water worn I say gravel worn because water unless under very high pressure doesn't wear away at rocks it is the harder gravel that is moved by the water currents that wear rocks down in creeks rivers etc.

another name for these holes that look perfectly bored round are called boils by older time miners and if large enough contain rich pockets of gold in the bottom. a good example of a boil is a rock pool in granite the water swirling around in a perfect cycle with gravel creates a near perfect hole in the weaker granite more sand comes in and rocks enlarging the small boil much like the small ones you have in the image above but much larger these you can sit in. anyway if you get a crow bar and break up the cemented like mix in the bottom of these rock pools/boils you can find nuggets and a very rich layer of gold or tin or any other heavy mineral in the bottom of them they are great places that concentrate minerals but a warning they can be extremely deep when you clean them out another thing to bore in mind is that some boils/rock pools can contain what is know as a false bottom this could be a group of smaller rocks wedges in so tight under water without seeing it feels like the true rock bottom. but is not or if you can see what your doing and your cleaning one out and get to a certain layer od say really hard clay you think you have hit the bottom but in fact it may be just a layer of clay 2 or so feet thick and under it a richer pocket of gold exists hidden by the false bottom.

I will find some good examples and point out all the works of them how they form how to work them etc. maybe even do a video on it

Thanks Hunting, that is awesome. Some really interesting info.

You mentioned the holes were close together, this brings to mind the figure 8 pools north of Wollongong/south of Sydney.

Here's a link to some images of that pool.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...ko_XAhVHwLwKHWexCiAQ_AUICigB&biw=1826&bih=879

brendomac said:

Thanks Hunting, that is awesome. Some really interesting info.

You mentioned the holes were close together, this brings to mind the figure 8 pools north of Wollongong/south of Sydney.

Here's a link to some images of that pool.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...ko_XAhVHwLwKHWexCiAQ_AUICigB&biw=1826&bih=879

Click to expand...

spot on just a smaller versions of that is what you have.