* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Winton meteorites

Blobrana · L

David Elliott marked where locals said they saw meteorites on a map with "kebab sticks and wires" in a bid to pinpoint where it landed, however, that still left him a 20,200 hectare area to search.
In the end, a dream gave him his best indication of the largest meteorite's location.

"The night it fell I had a really profound dream (of where it landed), it was so vivid. It was only 500 metres away from the area I had dreamt the bloody thing was." - David Elliott

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Blobrana · L

Six weeks ago - again while mustering - he stumbled on a 17kg meteorite believed to have landed in March 2004. Eleven days later, he found another meteorite weighing 12kg nearby.

He kept the discoveries secret until yesterday, after the rocks were examined and verified as meteorites by Alex Cook, curator of geosciences at Queensland Museum.

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Blobrana · L

Two rare meteorites weighing almost 30 kilograms have been found on a sheep and cattle property near Winton in Queensland's central west.

The burnt and blackened remains were discovered by David Elliott - the grazier who also found Australia's largest dinosaur fossil several years ago.
Mr Elliott says he has been searching for two years after a meteorite fall near the town caused a stir.

"The whole of the Winton district was talking about it for days, you know and it got everyone so excited. I think it frightened a lot of people actually - they thought it was a crashing plane and other people thought of terrorism and bombs going off and all this sort of thing because it was like prolonged thunder, it was quite incredible and it fascinated a lot of people and it fascinated me."

Mr Elliott says the burnt and blackened remains are a significant find.

"The original discovery was one, that was the biggest one which was 16 and three-quarters of a kilo and the second one was several weeks later, but the discovery of that meteorite was probably the most exciting thing I've ever had in my life. It was the most exciting discovery I've ever made and we've found quite a lot of good things, but nothing has ever come close to finding that meteorite."

The largest meteorite will go on display at Winton's Waltzing Matilda Centre, while the Queensland Museum will conduct tests on smaller samples.

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-- Edited by Blobrana at 17:41, 2006-07-13