Bunyip (Gawler, SA : 1863 - 1954), Friday 26 December 1930, page 8


THE KAROONDA METEORITE.

The heavenly body that crashed in the Mallee lands of South Australia, near Karoonda, a few weeks ago, caused a lot of controversy until dis-covered by Professor Kerr Grant, from information supplied by Karoonda wit-nesses. Adelaide people who saw the meteorite fall were confident that it would be picked up in the vicinity of one of the racecourses; Gawler peo-

ple who saw the phenomenon were positive that the visitor fell between the town and the ranges at Williams-town. In all these instances, however, none heard any sound nor explosion, and the State Meteorologist was satis-fied that they were much out in their location. The information and graphic description from Karoonda, tendered by Mr. Honeyman, a ganger on the rail-way, was such that the Government officers were satisfied they were hot on the trail, and two days' search, over a 3-mile radius, revealed the heavenly visitant shattered and buried about 2 feet below the ground, the crater giving indication to the Professor of the whereabouts of the remains. Mr. Honeyman telling his story said that the night was a fine clear one. At about 10.50 he was standing outside talking to a friend when "suddenly the whole place was flooded with a bright light, coming rapidly from the sky. It grew as bright as day. The glare be-came intense, just like a thousand high-powered acetylene lamps wrapped in one. Neither of us knew what was coming. We could not understand and stood dumbfounded for a while. Then we looked up, and saw a huge ball of fire which we thought was about to fall on us, so close did it appear. It was coming to earth at a steep gradient. It suddenly turned a little to the east,

leaving behind it a long chain of bright light, the like we shall probably never see again. It disappeared from view. Then a loud explosion took place. This did not appear far away. The house we were standing near shook, and the telephone wires vibrated with a peculiar singing sound. The explosion was followed by a cracking sound, which spread from the place where the explosion took place right back into the sky, and ran back along the track the ball of fire had travelled. Rumbling appeared in the sky, and then all was quiet again. We knew that a meteorite had fallen, or that some mighty dis-turbance of nature had taken place." Prof. Kerr Grant found a crater 2 feet in diameter, with the shattered meteorite not far into earth. He said that the finding was somewhat differ-ent to other meteor finds, and would put Karoonda's name on the map for ever. The fractured missile was most valuable from a scientific aspect, and the meteorite might possibly have been flying round in the air for thous-ands of years.