Clyde Primary School students Chantelle and Corey with Cranbourne-13, the 4.5 billon-year-old meteorite discovered last week. 21552 Picture: Stewart Chambers
By Glen Atwell
CRANBOURNE-13, the 4.5 billion-year-old space rock in safekeeping at Clyde Primary School is set to be the centre-point of a meteorite display at the Cranbourne Aquatic and Leisure Centre (CALC).
The meteorite display at the CALC, due to open in June next year, will replace the current exhibit on the corner of Camms Road and South Gippsland Highway in Cranbourne.
Council is also in discussion with the Melbourne Museum, hoping to borrow one of the original Cranbourne meteorites in the museum’s collection for display at the CALC.
Clyde Primary School is still celebrating its intergalactic discovery, which was confirmed by scientists last week.
As its name suggests, Cranbourne-13 is the 13th space rock to be discovered from the Cranbourne meteorite shower in the 1800s.
The owner of the rock had no idea his prize possession was a meteorite and only brought it to the school after describing its weight to assistant principal Maurie Richardson.
“I was chatting to a parent about our space theme and he mentioned he had a very unusual and heavy rock. I asked him to bring it in and let the kids study it,” Mr Richardson said.
“The owner now wants to donate the rock to the Melbourne Museum on the proviso that it is lent indefinitely to the City of Casey for display at the CALC.
“The meteorite may be worth a large amount of money, but the owner just wants to ensure it remains in Casey,” Mr Richardson said.
“I knew it was special the moment I saw it. It was cold to touch and very heavy.”
The owner is a market gardener from Clyde and found the meteorite on his property earlier this year, after digging up a rock that had been annoying him for years.
Not knowing the pesky rock was a significant discovery, the gardener rolled the 85-kilogram meteorite into the back of his ute and dumped it in a skip bin.
Luckily, it was saved from a trip to the tip after an inquisitive mate realised it was out of the ordinary.
Before it was put on display at the school, the rock was cleaned and an angle grinder was used to cut off a small sample.
Scientists at the Melbourne Museum tested and evaluated the samples and concluded it was indeed of outer-space origin.
The meteorite contains high levels of nickel and iron.
Cranbourne-12 was identified in Cranbourne in April 1982 and is currently on display at the City of Casey council offices in Narre Warren.
Cranbourne-12 weighs 23 kilograms, and was found on a property on the north-east corner of Pearcedale Road in Pearcedale.
It was originally discovered in 1927.
The rock is in the collections of the Melbourne Museum and is on long-term loan to the City of Casey for display purposes.
The exact year of the Cranbourne meteorite shower is unknown.
The first mention of the event was recorded in 1854 at the Melbourne Exhibition.
A local farrier had a horseshoe on display that was chiselled from what was then thought to be a large iron deposit.
In 1860, after a second iron deposit had been found, a Melbourne town clerk visited the location to check the authenticity of the reports.
Further investigations revealed the two ‘iron outcrops’ were two separate and distinct masses.
When excavated, the rocks were identified as meteorites and named Cranbourne-1 and Cranbourne-2.
The rocks weigh 3550 and 1525 kilograms respectively.
Cranbourne-1 is currently on display at the British Museum in London and Cranbourne-2 is in the collections of the Melbourne Museum.
