[meteorite-list] Willow Grove Meteorite - Farmer Buckley's Surprise Harvest

From: Jeff K. <jjkmlz_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:02:26 2004
Message-ID: <20020311055011.7835.qmail_at_web20307.mail.yahoo.com>

G'day List,
As a member of the Melbourne Museum, I receive the
Museum Victoria Magazine. In the current issue there
is a great story on Willow Grove; an "anomalous
ungrouped nickel-rich ataxite" meteorite. Here's an
interesting little insert to the main story.


Farmer Buckley's Surprise Harvest.

In 1995 Moe dairy farmer David Buckley was clearing
one of his paddocks for pasture when he struck the
first piece of an unusual looking rock. Unlike the
other rocks he was removing from the paddock, this one
had a particularly rusty look and when he picked itup
to get a closer look, the weight of it was more than
twice that of similar sized rocks.

"It was different from all the other rocks in the
paddock, but I wasn't sure what it could be. I thought
it might be a clump of iron but I wanted to find out
more about it," says David.

David showed the 2.7kg lump of rust-covered metal to
some mates, one of whom, Howard Orton, contacted Bill
Birch at the museum to have it checked out. This was
after the mandatory test with the oxy-acetylene torch
at the local garage!

A subsequent find in 1998 yielded a 9kg meteorite.
With the smaller rock now in the museum's collection,
the Buckley family have held on to the larger rock. A
family treasure, David intends to keep the meteorite
for both its story-telling value, and his own personal
souvenir of the solar system. ***

I spoke to Bill Birch (Senior Curator Geology -
Melbourne Museum), and he mentioned that the 2 pieces
did not appear to fit together and there were likely
other pieces out there! If anyone is interested in a
photocopy of the main story, just let me know I'll
send you a copy.

Thanks,
Jeff K.

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Received on Mon 11 Mar 2002 12:50:11 AM PST