Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 2004 |
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| Location | 224 Howick Street Bathurst, New South Wales Australia |
| Type | Historical |
The Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum is a super cool place located in Bathurst, a city in regional New South Wales, Australia. It opened its doors in July 2004. This amazing museum is found inside old school buildings from 1874, right in the middle of the city. It shows off nearly 2,000 incredible items from the famous Somerville Collection.
Contents
Discover the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum
Meet the Mighty T.Rex!
One of the biggest stars at the museum is a giant Tyrannosaurus rex (T.Rex) skeleton. It's about 10.5 meters (34 feet) long and 4 meters (13 feet) tall! Imagine seeing that up close.
The museum also has Australia's largest collection of fossils found trapped in amber. Plus, you can see real fossil dinosaur eggs and a big collection of fossils that have turned into shiny opal.
Explore the Amazing Somerville Collection
The Somerville Collection is a huge group of fossils and minerals. About one-third of it is fossils, and two-thirds are minerals. It has some of the most beautiful and rare minerals from all over the world. It also includes very important fossils from Australia.
Some cool things in the mineral collection include minerals from over 100 Australian mine sites. You can see garnets that are 2,000 million years old! There are also sparkling diamonds, bright sapphires, red rubies, and green emeralds.
Besides the T.Rex, the museum displays two other dinosaur skeletons. You can also see the skull of a sabre-tooth cat and more dinosaur egg fossils. One of the oldest fossils of early life forms is also here. A super rare fossilised Gecko is trapped in amber. This gecko lived between 30 and 24 million years ago!
The museum holds the lifetime collection of Warren Somerville AM. He spent 60 years collecting these amazing items from all over the world. In 2000, Warren Somerville gave this priceless collection to the people of Australia.
Why People Love This Museum
The Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum is very popular! Travellers using Lonely Planet have said it's the number one attraction in the Central West (New South Wales) area.
How the Museum is Supported
To get the museum started, money came from different levels of government, companies, and generous people who donated. Today, the Bathurst Regional Council helps keep the museum running.
