W.D. Birch(Ed.) Minerals of Broken Hill. Broken Hill, New South Wales (Broken Hill City Council and Museum of Victoria), 1999, xiv + 289pp. Price AUS$ 120.00 (+ postage and handling). ISBN 0-9599486-9-4(To be ordered through the Albert Kersten Geocentre, PO Box 448, Broken Hill, New South Wales 2880, Australia (e-mail geocentr@ncpro.net.au).

Abstract

This welcome new edition of a work which originally appeared in 1982 has been expanded and upgraded, not only with the inclusion of many new colour photographs of the minerals but also with additional chapters providing historical information and outlining the geological setting of this famous area. The historical notes, the chapter on Charles Rasp who discovered the deposit and the chapter on the various scientific investigators along with the minerals they determined may at first glance appear unexciting, the photographic illustrations by the nature of things being in sepia-tone or black-and-white. But the chapter by Maja Sainisch-Plimer gives fascinating insights into the complex life-history of Charles Rasp, descended from an illustrious Portuguese family but born in Dresden and who on Christmas night 1870 deserted from Bismarck’s army on the outskirts of Paris at the height of the Franco- Prussian war. His close friend Dr Karl Raspe had been killed, and on arrival in Australia he took on a new identity and became Charles Rasp. After various posts he became a boundary rider on the Mt Gipps sheep station, but he was well educated and his curiosity led him to note that black lumps of mineral on the jagged broken hill were unusually heavy for their size. There were already several established silver mines in the …