The large specimen in the foreground is a mass of quartz with vein of gold from the Orient Mine Murchison Goldfield, collected in 1892. The main gallery at the Western Australian Museum circa 1890. The mineral collection was eventually rescued by Ken McNamara, Curator of Palaeontology, from near-destruction in 1985, and today mineralogy flourishes at the Western Australian Museum. The history of the collection is a salutary lesson in what can happen to a public asset lacking curatorial responsibility. Placed in storage in the mid-1960s and inaccessible to the public for around twenty years, the collection was badly neglected. Surprisingly, for one of Australia’s premier mining states, the mineral collection of the Western Australian Museum has had a chequered past. A short history of the mineralogy collectionĪrticle | Updated 6 years ago Malachite with associated pyromorphite from the Whim Creek Mine, Pilbara, Western Australia.Ī rich hunting ground for prospectors and collectors, Western Australia has been a prolific source of new minerals and fine mineral specimens.
0 kommentar(er)
