Records of the Western Australian Museum 17:169-175 (1995). 
Australites from Earaheedy Station, Western Australia with notes on 
australites from the nearby Glenayle Station 
W.H. Cleverly 
Western Australian School of Mines, P.O. Box 597, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia 6430 
Abstract - Australites from Earaheedy Station totalling 8720 specimens have 
been classified morphologically and compared with australites from the 
Eastern Goldfields centred 500 km to the south. The only major difference is 
the high percentage (15.4%) of flakes and flaked cores in the Earaheedy 
specimens arising from widespread destructive use of australites by 
Aborigines, though the percentage has been inflated by the manner of 
collection of the sample. A much smaller and unrepresentative sample of 334 
specimens is available from the nearby Glenayle Station. Australites were 
less abundant than at Earaheedy Station but at least equally popular as 
artifact material. Considerations of specific gravity suggest that they are of 
the "normal australite" chemical type of Chapman (1971). 
INTRODUCTION 
Earaheedy Station is centred 25"40'S, 121°49'E in 
the northeastern comer of the Salt Lake Division of 
Western Australia (Jutson 1934) and near the 
geographical centre of the state. The station has a 
semi-arid climate with large temperature 
fluctuations and internal drainage to salt lakes and 
claypans. 
Access to additional or enlarged private 
collections of australites from Earaheedy Station 
has increased the available sample from 2208 to 
8720 specimens, thus enabling the upgrading of an 
earlier statement (Cleverly 1991). Contributions to 
tire supplemented sample are: Western Australian 
Museum 57, Western Australian School of Mines 
1578, A. Quadrio 244, M.K. Quartermaine family 
1742, C. Strugnell 51, L.P. Strugnell 4706, T. Wilks 
314, C. Ward and others 28. A further 148 
australites in the Smithsonian Institution collection 
(Chalmers el al. 1976) and the highly biased W.A. 
School of Mines item 11597 of 175 specimens were 
not included in the sample. 
DISTRIBUTION AND RECOVERY OF 
AUSTRALITES 
The find sites of 85% of the australites are known, 
though not all with precision (Figure 1). Nearly 
39% of the sample was found by station staff 
incidentally to their station duties or in subsequent 
searches of sites already found to be productive. 
Private and commercial collectors found the other 
61% of the sample. 
Australites are present on much, probably all, of 
the station (M.K. Quartermaine, pers. comm.). The 
zone of proven occurrence trending southeast from 
the homestead (Figure 1) is coincident with present 
station occupancy and activity except for the 
contributions from private and commercial 
collectors, especially at the southeastern end of the 
zone, where australites are unusually abundant. 
Some of the australites are closely associated 
with natural water sources formerly used by 
Aborigines. The australites found at those sites 
include numerous flakes and flaked cores. 
Akerman (1975) identified 93 struck flakes, 27 
cores, 23 used flakes and 50 tools, a total of 193 
artifacts or 16.4% of the 1179 Earaheedy australites 
in the Western Australian School of Mines 
collection in 1975, but omitting the biased catalogue 
item 11597 which is considered elsewhere below. 
The identification of australite flakes in other 
collections as artifacts is suggested by their 
association with flakes of chert and other siliceous 
rocks around natural sources of drinkable water. 
The sites of abundant australite occurrence 
include Pope Claypan (136 australite flakes and 
flaked cores/308 australite specimens); Spider Bore 
with nearby water hole (129/740); Neville Claypan 
(37/66); Hamilton Claypan (50/90); an area south 
and southeast of Hegarty Bore including the 
freshwater Tommy Lake (474/4707). The list could 
be extended by citing minor recoveries e.g., the 
claypan south of Ian Bore (8/24). The only figures 
available for other basins are 11/314 or only 3.5% 
flakes for australites collected by T. Wilks from two 
small basins described as "salt lakes" in the eastern 
part of the station. Australites were probably 
brought to the water sources from the immediately 
surrounding country but there was no need for 
