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Published: March 29th 2008
The main purpose of our trip to Bathurst was to visit, situated in the heart of Bathurst, the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum which is the home of the internationally renowned Somerville Collection. This important collection is internationally significant because it covers rare specimens from all over the world. It is housed in the 1876 Public School building which underwent major refurbishment before being fitted out with stunningly beautiful exhibitions. Close to 2000 fossil and mineral specimens are displayed in two main exhibitions.
The Somerville Collection is the lifetime work of Warren Somerville and features some of the finest and rarest examples of minerals and fossils in the world. The specimens currently on display in the Museum represent about one quarter of the total Collection.
Highlights from the mineral collection include crystals from over 100 Australian mine sites, the world's largest rhodonite gem crystals, 2,000 million years old garnets, rainbow-coloured fluorite's from China, as well as diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds and other gems from around the world.
Features of the fossil collection include Australia's only complete T.rex skeleton, Australia's largest collection of fossils in amber, fossil dinosaur eggs, some of the oldest fossils of early forms of life, and a large collection of Australia's unique opalised fossils.
I knew little about fossils and minerals but in the six hours or so that we spent in the museum I learnt far more than I ever thought possible. All the exhibits are displayed so well with descriptions written in plain English that is very easily understood. I have plagiarised the exhibition notes for this posting. It was a real pleasure to go there and we will certainly return.
The photos could be better, this is a public museum so I was reluctant to use a tripod, similarly I avoided using flash because it can be rather annoying to other visitors and if everyone used flash it would eventually damage the exhibits. The light in the museum is ideal for viewing the exhibits direct but not ideal for photography, some of these handheld pictures were taken at around one tenth of a second whilst I held my breath to avoid camera shake. I will return here because it was not until towards the end of our visit that I figured out the best way to manipulate two cameras and take the necessary notes at the same time, I hope that I have the notes and captions with the correct specimens.
The following photographs are just a very small sample of all those that are on display, it is well worth the trip to this Museum in Bathurst, you will not be disappointed.
We’ll start with a picture of the Ichthyosaur skull from Richmond in Queensland. Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles which looked remarkably like modern dolphins. However the two types of animals were unrelated, ichthyosaurs were reptiles which lived in the sea at the same time as the dinosaurs, while dolphins are mammals which adapted to the marine habitat long after the ichthyosaurs and dinosaurs had become extinct.
You might have noticed some smaller fossils displayed with the Ichthyosaur skull, these are Calceolispongiidae, from Carnarvon Basin in Western Australia. Sorry can’t tell you much more about them but they do look quite interesting.
We now have a look at a mineral specimen, this is Zincocalcite probably from Broken Hill, Australia.
Here we have a very rare and valuable sample of Crocoite. Warren Somerville purchased about 1,000 specimens of this mineral and he found that they proved to be excellent trade material especially in Europe and the USA. This specimen is from Tasmania which is world famous for its high quality Crocoite. An Internet search will reveal that prices range from $20 to $20,000 per piece.
The next three, although the look very different are all samples of Gypsum
Celestite in Vugh from Majunga, Madagasgar.
I particularly like this specimen of Selenite from Chihuahua Mexico.
Angelite from New Caledonia
Nice colouring and pattern on this specimen of Malachite from Cobar NSW.
Rather attractive Rhodochrosite with Kutnohorite from Cavnic in Romania.
We’ll now return to the fossils, this one is quite amazing, I never expected it to be so big:
This is the only complete T Rex skeleton in Australia.
A Nothosaur skeleton Keichousaurus hui from Guizhou Province, China.
This one fascinated me, it’s a shoal of herring-like fish, Knightia eocenae, I imagine them swimming along then suddenly something happened very quickly to freeze them in time producing the wonderful fossil that we see today.
This is the skull and lower jaw a giant wombat like diprotodontid found at Alcoota Station in the Northern Territory of Australia. The diprotodontid took the niche that is now assumed by elephants in Africa, it was our largest mammal and was flightless.
Its almost grinning at us, perhaps this petrified crab or Harpactoxanthopsis quadrilobata from Monte Bolca, Italy died with a smile on its face.
When visiting a fossil museum a picture of a nest of dinosaur eggs is a must. These came from Henan Province, China.
Looks quite cuddly but the Drotops armatus is actually a Devonian insect.
I thought you’d recognise this Bathyriscus fimbriatus from the Cambrian period.
This is a Garpike or Lepisosteus.
All over this museum you’ll find descriptions like this to illustrate just how useful some of these minerals have become
Composite displays to compare different minerals from all over the world
This museum has been so well thought out then planned with a lot of work going into displaying the specimens in such a way that they have become enjoyable and informative. If you ever visit Australia do visit this museum in Bathurst, New South Wales, you’ll thoroughly enjoy it.
After the Museum we called into the Fern House in Machattie Park
This was very nice but we were in for a very pleasant surprise when we walked into a building that was labelled “The Begonia House”. We don’t know much about begonias and never realised that they could grow so big. There were several hundred on display but here’s just a dozen to look at:
Two nights but only one day in Bathurst so just a quick look around.
An original Cobb & Co Stagecoach
Statues, wonder what they were discussing
A Japanese Garden
Should have written it down but we think this was called a Friendship Circle.
Couldn't get any vegetarian food so nipped into Woollies for some veg and things then made our own.
Just a brief visit to Bathurst, the first for both of us, such an interesting place that we will be back probably for at least five days. This is where gold was first discovered in New South Wales, the only inland place that Charles Darwin visited and many other things that have happened in the last 180 years, may not be history to some countries but it is to our very young one although the indigenous people would not agree with this statement.
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NigWar
Nigel Waring
Hi John, thanks for your comments. Going down to Melbourne in a few weeks, might be some more if we find anything interesting.