Stranger Than Fiction

Tweet

Our nephew-in-law has just returned from a trip to the north of the state. Part of his work deals with tracking asteroids and meteors so while in the region they visited Dalgaranga crater which is situated some 75 km west of Mount Magnet in the north of Western Australia. It is relatively small, measuring 24 metres in diameter and 3 metres deep. The crater was discovered by an aboriginal stockman, Billy Seward, from Dalgaranga pastoral station in 1921. Two years later, the station manager, Gerard Wellard, packed up a small drumful of meteorite pieces and sent them off to the West Australian museum. For some reason, nothing happened and when Wellard visited Perth, he discovered the meteorites had been misplaced. They were later found. What is more interesting is that at some point an American professor with an interest in meteorites came to Perth and tried to make contact with Wellard. Unfortunately Wellard's name had been incorrectly recorded as Willard and, try as he might, the professor was not able to find Willard/Wellard. When their visit came to an end, the professor and his wife took a cruise ship back to the US without ever having made contact. On the ship, the professor's wife got into discussion with an Australian lady who just happened to be Mrs Wellard. So the two men met after all. Can you imagine the delight of the professor after such a disappointing start to his journey? Photo is of a typical sunset from the region