94 
A.W.R. Bevan, P. Bindon 
example, of all the meteorites found in Australia, 
irons account for approximately 29% of the total. 
This is the result of human collection bias. The 
more exotic-looking irons are easily recognised as 
meteorites and, in modern times, have been 
preferentially collected. 
In the population of meteorites from the 
Nullarbor Region of Australia, however, only four 
iron meteorites and one stony-iron meteorite are 
recorded. While these account for more than 90% 
° . e mass of all meteorites recovered from the 
region, Bevan (1992) noted that taken by type, and 
as a percentage of the total population of 
meteorites so far recorded, the irons and stony- 
irons were under represented in the Nullarbor by 
about a factor of two compared with the modem 
flux of meteorites. 
The low percentage of metallic meteorites in the 
Nullarbor population is difficult to explain. In the 
u arbor in modem times, many meteorites have 
been found by inexperienced personnel and it 
would be expected that any bias would be towards 
more, rather than less, iron meteorites. A 
complicating factor is that the Nullarbor has been 
periodically populated by Aboriginal people over 
at least the last 20,000 years (e.g., see White and 
O'Connell 1982), and by itinerant prospectors and 
rabbiters within the last 100 years. Human 
interference (possibly Aboriginal) with the 
population of meteorites from the Nullarbor, by 
the selective collection of irons, cannot be ruled 
out. 
ABORIGINAL DESCRIPTION OF 
METEORITIC EVENTS AND SITES 
Northern Territory 
Hertbury Craters 
The best example in Australia of possible 
Aboriginal recognition of a meteoritic event is the 
