[meteorite-list] "Meteorite's mystery puts Bruce between a rock and a hard place."

From: chris aubeck <caubeck_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 11:38:06 +0100
Message-ID: <3a5693b30612070238i8a3a65cqf00a5af0fa078b30_at_mail.gmail.com>

I have no url for this article but I thought I'd share it here just in
case it interested anyone.

Chris



>From the Central & Northern Burnett Times, 9.11.06

Meteorite's mystery puts Bruce between a rock and a hard place.

Bruce Jamieson has brought to the attention of the Central &
Northern Burnett Times a 40 year-old mystery of a hard black
rock, thought to be a meteorite, which could not be dug out at
the time, and remains buried to this day.

Mr Jamieson passed the Times on to one of the few men left alive
who saw the mysterious black rock, Jack Byron.

Mr Byron said the mysterious hard rock was found by a farmer,
Arnold Schuurs, in the 1960's who had a swamp on his property that
he wanted to build a little dam to retain water in dry times.

When Mr Schuurs got someone with a small dozer to start to dig
they came across this hard black rock that they could not break.

"He barely scratched it," Mr Byron said.

The dozer driver backed out and went around to a different side of
the swamp and again struck this hard rock leading to speculation
that it was quite large, probably as big as a football field,
according to Mr Byron.

As it was only a small dozer, it was not buried very deeply, he
said.

He said at the time a geologist in the area identified it as a
meteorite but no samples or tests were taken.

At the time, Mr Schuurs swore to secrecy the small number of
people, who knew about the mysterious meteorite, including Mr
Byron, as he did not want people trampling all about his
property.

With the progress of time, Mr Byron, who now resides at Tannum
Sands, is the only one close by who saw the black mass.

There is one other man left, but he lives interstate, so Mr Byron,
in his 80's, decided to tell his secret, so it would not die with
him.

The property where the mysterious black rock was found is about
7 km North of Monto on the Burnett highway, now owned by the
Rogers family.

Mr Jamieson, a Monto councillor, said the council made an attempt
to find the mysterious rock, but could not find it.

They placed a marker where they thought it might be.

The swamp is now bone dry since the drought, and now would be an
ideal time to dig and try to find it, said Mr Jamieson.

He said if it was found, and if it was a meteorite, it could be
of both scientific and tourism interest.

Mr Jamieson said it could be a meterorite or a volcanic intrusion,
but Monto's 40 year-old meteorite mystery is yet to be solved.
Received on Thu 07 Dec 2006 05:38:06 AM PST