Waverley Gem and Mineral Show
Mineral Matters #461
This time of year, there are a number of local shows, but, as we will be away soon, I won’t be attending as many as usual.
This weekend was an exception. The Waverley Gem and Mineral Show was held in Melbourne. My son was over from Tasmania for a quick visit, so we both attended the show. I had a bit of a false start though. I had left my glasses in the car and quickly realised that it was useless me looking at specimens and trying to read labels. I can’t quite squint enough! So after about ten minutes, I had to give up trying, get a pass out, and head back to my car to retrieve said glasses!
The number of mineral dealers is shrinking a bit, but there are still some interesting things to be found. And the club stall can still provide a specimen or two with a bit of diligent searching. I even managed to find a piece of Mount Fuji! It is a small piece of vesicular basalt (so essentially a rock sample), but it does have small xenoliths of anorthoclase in the matrix. And a thank you to Geoff too who managed to find a few Japanese mineral specimens for me.
The club exhibits in a few showcases too. This one, Minerals from Victoria, was the most interesting to me.
Cool to have a piece of Mt Fuji, Steve! I was in Manila and got to side trip to Mt Taal, and picked up some roadside pumice/scoria, great fun. Taal is the smallest active volcano in the world, not quite a Mt Fuji...nothing happened when I was nearby, but it puffed some gas a week later.
I like the display case with the cauliflower-like hydromagnesite. Here, it's growing out of some the hillsides.