As the collection has been active for over 170 years, several of the specimens have special historical significance.
On 22 May 1826, two ships sailed from Plymouth, England on a major expedition to chart the southern coast of South America. Captain Philip Parker King (son of Governor Phillip Gidley King) was Senior Officer in charge of the expedition, and also Commander and Surveyor of H.M.S. 'Adventure', assisted by Captain Pringle Stokes. The second ship was H.M.S. 'Beagle', commanded by Captain Robert Fitzroy.
Both ships reached the vicinity of Cape Horn on the southern-most tip of South America in early 1830, but Captain King and the 'Adventure' continued to chart the Chilean coast and Tierra del Fuego, while Captain Fitzroy and party landed on the South American coast and proceeded to climb Cape Horn. The group reached the summit of Cape Horn on 20 April 1830, collecting many pieces of diorite rock. The two ships rejoined in Rio de Janeiro harbour and sailed for England. Captain King was paid off in November 1830 and returned to new South Wales around 1832.
The cargo of natural history specimens, including the Cape Horn rocks, would have remained in England, but curiously, one small piece of diorite collected by Captain Fitzroy was presented to Captain King and remained in his family for several generations as a curio at the family estate 'Dunheved' near St. Mary's, New South Wales. The specimen was passed to Phillip Parker King's son, Phillip Gidley King, who himself once served on the 'Adventure' and afterwards, on the 'Beagle' under Captain Fitzroy.
Phillip Gidley King had, like his father, been elected to the New South Wales Parliament as M.L.C., and in that capacity wrote to the Director of the Australian Museum, Robert Etheridge Jnr., offering to donate his father's memento. Etheridge called on King the following Tuesday afternoon, 19 December 1889 to accept the specimen. King's letter is preserved in the Australian Museum Archives, and makes amusing reading. The Museum's collection catalogues show that the specimen was first officially registered on 21 December 1899.
The Cape Horn specimen brings to life an age of adventure and hazardous sea voyages, and represents a long chain of events which eventually brought it into our collection.
The history of the 'Barratta' meteorite has some uncertain details and conflicting claims. There are two accounts, one suggesting its fall, accompanied by spectacular light and sound effects was witnessed by a stockman, Mr. Jones and the pieces found by fencers around 1859, while another suggests the meteorite was found by chance by a rider, around 1845. The earlier date has persisted, suggesting the 'Barratta' has the honour of being the first meteorite found in Australia by Europeans, pre-dating the 1854 find of the 'Cranbourne' irons in Victoria, and the 1855 find of the 'Narraburra' iron near Temora, New South Wales
According to the earlier account, around 1845 Mr. F. Gwynne of 'Murgah' station near Deniliquin, New South Wales, found unusual pieces of heavy stone when he was riding over the Barratta Plains. The largest piece was about 76 cm diameter and about 30 cm thick, and would have weighed about 100 kg - 150 kg. The pieces were found lying flat on the ground without any noticeable crater. The actual site was on 'Barratta' station, 56 km north-west of Deniliquin.
The Government Astronomer, Mr. H.C. Russell saw these rocks when passing through Deniliquin on 9 April 1871. By then, pieces of the stones had been taken from their original site by various people, but the owner of 'Barratta' property, Mr. Henry Ricketson donated a large mass to Mr. Russell after he had confirmed what it was, and it became part of the Sydney Observatory collection. The 'Barratta' stony meteorite was first described scientifically in 1872, when Professor Archibald Liversidge, a Trustee of the Australian Museum, published an account in 'Transactions of the Royal Society of New South Wales'. The specimen was originally at Sydney Observatory, but was later transferred to the Australian Museum collection.
Altogether, five pieces of 'Barratta' (66 kg, 14 kg, 22 kg, 22 kg, 80 kg) were found at various times between 1845 and 1889, with the main masses of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stones in the Australian Museum collection, and those of the 4th and 5th stones in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, USA, but portions of all five masses are distributed worldwide in Museum and private meteorite collections. Technically, the stone is a 'chondrite' made up mainly of iron magnesium silicate minerals olivine and hypersthene with metallic nickel-iron and troilite (iron sulphide). Its exterior has a smooth grey to black 'fusion crust', but the interior is granular with small spherical bodies (chondrules) of silicate minerals, and scattered grains and networks of metallic nickel-iron. A 10 cm cube of the meteorite would weigh about 3.5 kg.
This small and unpretentious specimen of smithsonite (zinc carbonate), with copper, represents the beginnings of a fabulously-rich and world-famous mine. It comes from the very earliest years of mining of the immense Broken Hill, New South Wales lode of lead, silver, copper and zinc minerals, which has been mined for over 100 years. It comes from the very top of the arch-like anticlinal structure, the cap of the original Broken Hill lode, from the gossan zone. It was found around 1895, and there are references to this specimen in Parliamentary Papers of the State Government of New South Wales of that year.
This meteorite has two great claims to fame: it was the first meteorite ever found in Antarctica, and it was found by Sir Douglas Mawson, the famous Australian Geologist and Antarctic explorer. It was found lying on the snow, about 32 km west of Cape Denison, Adelie Land, Antarctica in 1912. At that time Mawson was leading the 1911-1914 Australian Antarctic Expedition. When originally found this meteorite weighed about one kilogram and was completely covered with a dark brown fusion crust. It is a stony meteorite of the chondrite class, and is classified as an olivine-bronzite chondrite (L5). The meteorite was sliced for scientific study, so it is now possible to see its speckled interior.
Copyright © Australian Museum, 2004