places you might like to visit

Malachite

PLACES YOU MIGHT LIKE TO VISIT IF YOU ARE TRAVELLING AND WOULD LIKE TO SEE A MINERAL COLLECTION, GEMS, FOSSILS etc. The are many sites in Australia which cater to people interested in gems, minerals, fossils etc. The sites listed here are sites I have visited over the years and have enjoyed. They provide a pleasant counterpart to our fossicking activities and deserve to be supported by all lapidary/mineral/fossil enthusiasts. VIC. N.S.W. QLD TAS. (NOTE THAT THERE ARE MANY GREAT SITES IN OTHER STATES, BUT I HAVE NOT HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO VISIT THOSE SITES YET! SO THIS IS A VERY LIMITED LIST!!!!)

VICTORIA MELBOURNE MUSEUM: has a great display of ‘Minerals and Gemstones’ as well ‘Fossils & Dinosaurs’ and ‘Meteors and Meteorites’. Our club has visited the museums ‘mineral vaults’ as well as the public collections and both are worth a look! Club visit to museum link (photos near bottom of page). The museum website is at http://museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/ Portland Gem & Mineral display: this display, located at the ‘Tram Depot’ in Portland in S.W. Victoria is well worth a visit if you are in the region. For a flavour of the display, take a look at our clubs visit to the display. The Alan Wood collection: is a private collection located in Mortlake in S.W. Victoria. If is centred around the minerals and gems of Mt Shadwell, Mortlake. See the Alan Wood Collection page. N.S.W. Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum, located in Bathurst, is an excellent museum and well worth a visit if you are in the area. Some photos of the exhibition are here (photos near bottom of page)! The museum also has a website at with useful information at URL: http://www.somervillecollection.com.au LAKE MUNGO N.P.: Located 110km N.E. of Mildura is of geological, biological and cultural significance. As well as having evidence of at least 40,000 yrs of human habitation is has good examples of erosion features in the lunette known as ‘The walls of china’. Here you will see distinctly coloured soil layers in the eroded pinnacles and the resultant ‘alluvial fans’. The walls of china. The lower sediments are approx. 110,000 y.o., The upper sediments as recent as 18,000 y.o. Overlooking the ‘walls of china’ with lake Mungo in the background (it dried up some 15,000 years ago). Note the eroded pinnacle in the background and the characteristic erosion patterns in the foreground. Vigars Well, a water hole, with sand dunes in the background, which are moving east at 3m/year better indication of the extensive nature of the sand dunes which form the lunette. THE ‘ALBERT KERSTEN MINING & MINERALS MUSEUM’ in Broken Hill has a good display of local minerals reflecting Broken Hills mining heritage. The Silver Tree, an 8 kg silver table centrepiece owned by Charles Rasp, who held the first mining lease at Broken Hill. A 42 kg silver nugget A small selection of the many specimens at the museum.

QLD WINTON: AUSTRALIAN AGE OF DINOSAURS MUSEUM is well worth a visit if you are in western QLD. It is located some 24km from Winton on a ‘mesa’ with great views of the area. The museum shows where the recovered bones fit in the original dinosaur and you can see the bones being extracted from the rock in which they were found. Likely appearance of one of the dinosaurs which used to roam the area. Left: The bones & enclosing rock are wrapped in a plaster/fabric coating prior to preparation Right: Preparation area. Left: Dinosaur bones partially exposed. Right: Fossils in different stages of extraction from the base rock. A number of recovered dinosaur bones (LHS) and a diagram on the RHS showing where those bones were located in the dinosaur. Left: A rather large petrified log. Right: A dinosaur fossil bone insitu. Parts of the main display showing the bones of other dinosaurs. LARK QUARRY: located some 110km south of Winton preserves some 3300 tracks showing the only recorded dinosaur stampede on our planet! View of part of the stampede area. Some of the stampede dinosaur footprints. Other fossils at the site. Hughenden: at the tourist information centre you can view a large range of fossils from QLD. L: Belemnites can be dug up around Hughenden. R: Pliosaur fossils. Fossilised ammonites and mineral display’s.

TAS ZEEHAN The mining musuem is well worth a visit. (No photos on this page due to the policy in place when I visited, which prohibited any photography.) HOBART the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in the centre of Hobart (Dunn Pl., between Davey St. and Macquarie St.) Has a good mineral/gem collection which is worth a visit if you are in the area.

‘ASHWORTHS’ located in Home Hill, south of Townsville,. Ashworths was founded in 1948 in Ayr by the present owner’s grandfather. It is well worth a visit if you are in the area. They have a impressive gem/mineral collection in their museum which represents some 60 years of collecting (started by the grandfather of the current owner). The highlight of the collection for me was the fantastic collection of ‘Agate Creek’ agates. This is the best collection of agates from Agate Creek that I have been seen, with many different types, varying in size from approximately 5cm up to 40cm diameter. The range of colours is impressive and some a of the gates do look like ‘pictures’ of animals or scenery. The collection also includes a good range of other gem materials collected from around Australia, many of which I wished I could take home with me.

Elbaite crystals

VICTORIA MELBOURNE MUSEUM: has a great display of ‘Minerals and Gemstones’ as well ‘Fossils & Dinosaurs’ and ‘Meteors and Meteorites’. Our club has visited the museums ‘mineral vaults’ as well as the public collections and both are worth a look! The museum website is at http://museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/ Portland Gem & Mineral display: this display, at the ‘Tram Depot’ in Portland in S.W. Victoria is worth a visit if you are in the region. For a flavour of the display, take a look at our clubs visit to the display. The Alan Wood collection: is a private collection located in Mortlake in S.W. Victoria. If is centred around the minerals and gems of Mt Shadwell, Mortlake. See the Alan Wood Collection page. N.S.W. Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum, located in Bathurst, is an excellent museum and well worth a visit if you are in the area. Some photos of the exhibition are here (photos near bottom of page)! The museum also has a website at with useful information at URL: http://www.somervillecollection.com.au LAKE MUNGO N.P.: Located 110km N.E. of Mildura is of geological, biological and cultural significance. As well as having evidence of at least 40,000 yrs of human habitation is has good examples of erosion features in the lunette known as ‘The walls of china’. Here you see distinctly coloured soil layers in the eroded pinnacles and the resultant ‘alluvial fans’. The walls of china. The lower sediments are approx. 110,000 y.o., The upper sediments as recent as 18,000 y.o. Overlooking the ‘walls of china’ with lake Mungo in the background (it dried up some 15,000 years ago). Note the eroded pinnacle in the background and the characteristic erosion patterns in the foreground. Vigars Well, a water hole, with sand dunes in the background, which are moving east at 3m/year better indication of the extensive nature of the sand dunes which form the lunette. THE ‘ALBERT KERSTEN MINING & MINERALS MUSEUM’ in Broken Hill has a good display of local minerals reflecting Broken Hills mining heritage. The Silver Tree, an 8 kg silver table centrepiece owned by Charles Rasp, who held the first mining lease at Broken Hill. A 42 kg silver nugget A small selection of the many specimens at the museum.

QLD WINTON: AUSTRALIAN AGE OF DINOSAURS MUSEUM is well worth a visit if you are in western QLD. It is located some 24km from Winton on a ‘mesa’ with great views of the area. The museum shows where the recovered bones fit in the original dinosaur and you can see the bones being extracted from the rock in which they were found. Likely appearance of one of the dinosaurs which used to roam the area. The bones & enclosing rock are wrapped in a plaster/fabric coating prior to preparation A diagram howing where those bones were located in the dinosaur. Left: A rather large petrified log. Parts of the main display showing the bones of another dinosaur. LARK QUARRY: located some 110km south of Winton preserves some 3300 tracks showing the only recorded dinosaur stampede on our planet! View of part of the stampede area. Some of the stampede dinosaur footprints. Other fossils at the site. Hughenden: at the tourist information centre you can view a large range of fossils from QLD. Fossilised ammonites .