* Astronomy

Title: Recent investigations of the Tenham meteorites shower.
Authors: J. H. Brook, B. R. Houston, N. A. H. Simmonds

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Title: Australian Aboriginal Geomythology: Eyewitness Accounts of Cosmic Impacts?
Authors: Duane W. Hamacher and Ray P. Norris

It was reported in 1900 that Aboriginal people were "deadly afraid" of the Warbreccan masses of the Tenham meteorite: "They cover them in the bush with kangaroo grass, a twisted gidga bark and mud, and then by boughs over the top. Their idea is if the sun sees them, more stones will be shaken down to kill them",suggesting that they had witnessed the fall(Event #20).

According to Spencer (1937) the Warbreccan stones were taken by an opal dealer named T.C. Wollaston and sold to the British Museum, using an invented story to explain their origins and how he acquired them. The Aboriginal account is taken from files in the British Museum, so this account is considered dubious (although we do not know if the account is fictitious). However, a news article (Anon 1880) describes an eyewitness account of the Tenham fall on Monday, 25 April 1880 that involved an Aboriginal policemen and theirreaction to the event:

"A few minutes aftersix o'clock [...] a very large and brilliant meteorshot from overhead and descended in a southerly direction. The meteor appeared to be the size of a six-quart billycan, and was one splendid ball of fire; it left no streak of light after it, and was the largest one I have ever seen. When the meteor had descended about three parts the distance from where I firstsaw it to the earth, I lostsight of it, asit was passing behind a large dark cloud. Istood looking in the direction the meteor wastraveling, when a loud explosion took place in the same direction which slightly shook the ground for miles around; then a loud rushing noise could be heard as though a great blast of air was rushing through a large tube suspended in mid-air. Thissound must have lasted for nearly two minutes when it died away. Next morning, when I rode up to Jundah, everyone there wanted to know what the explosion was, and the only conclusion we could arrive at was that when the meteor struck the ground it must have exploded, but we have not been able to account for the rushing sound afterwards. Inspector Sharp of the black troopers [an Aboriginal police force] said that when the explosion took place, the house he wasin shook very much, and that when he ran out to see what wastaking place he saw all the troopers running into the barracks with fright depicted on each countenance. From what I could learn I wasthe only white man atJundah who saw the transit of the meteor. It is my opinion that itstruck the earth a few miles above Galway Downs, and close to the Barcoo River, or we could not have felt the earth shake when it exploded."

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