The Tenham (Queensland) meteoritic shower of 1879 (With Plates XIV-XVII.)

Abstract

Very little reformation can now be gathered about a remarkable shower of meteoric stones that fell many years ago in a remote district in south-west Queensland. Only a few scraps of information have appeared in print, and these are largely contradictory. However, some very tangible evidence arrived unexpectedly at the British Museum in 1935 in the form of a remarkable collection of 102 complete meteoric stones with a total weight of 107¾lb. This material had been in the possession of Mr. Benjamin Dunstan, formerly Government Geologist of Queensland, who had been collecting information of the fall with a view to writing up an account for publication. This unfortunately he never did, and much of the information is now lost. The specimens were offered to the British Museum by his widow, but they came along quite casually as an appendix to a collection of fossils.