The year before NASA landed a man on the moon, a sealed Eyre Highway was being surveyed
to replace the dirt road that connected the eastern and western sides of Australia.

Near Eucla, a small hamlet on the Western Australian border, the otherwise straight road through the flat Nullarbor Plain has a peculiar bend.

This deviation was caused by a crater-like depression, discovered by a surveyor and geologist mapping out the highway's route.

Their Investigation revealed that the depression was an ancient impact crater, as at its centre
they recovered a 2.8-kilogram meteorite fragment (pictured in the roll-over image).

It was identified as a "Mundrabilla" iron with the main 12.4-tonne section preserved at the Western Australia Museum.

As a gesture of gratitude for their hospitality, the fragment was given to the owners of
the Amber (now Eucla) Roadhouse, an oasis then under construction in this utterly remote area.

Locals still refer to the bend in the road as "the meteorite crater"
where a track also leads travelers to the majestic Delisser sand hills.

Copyright Peter J Ward 2024