Product catalogue
Australian National Mineral and Fossil Collection
Collection of mineral, gem, meteorite, fossil (including the Commonwealth Palaeontological Collection) and petrographic thin section specimens dating back to the early 1900s. The collection is of scientific, historic, aesthetic, and social significance. Geoscience Australia is responsible for the management and preservation of the collection, as well as facilitating access to the collection for research, and geoscience education and outreach. Over 700 specimens from the collection are displayed in our public gallery .
The collection contains:
• 15,000 gem, mineral and meteorite specimens from localities in Australia and across the globe.
• 45,000 published palaeontological specimens contained in the Commonwealth Palaeontological Collection (CPC) mainly from Australia.
• 1,000,000 unpublished fossils in a ‘Bulk Fossil’ collection.
• 250,000 petrographic thin section slides.
• 200 historical geoscience instruments including: cartography, geophysical, and laboratory equipment."
<b>Value: </b>Specimens in the collection are derived from Geoscience Australia (GA) surveys, submissions by researchers, donations, purchases and bequests. A number of mineral specimens are held on behalf of the National Museum of Australia.
<b>Scope: </b>This is a national collection that began in the early 1900s with early Commonwealth surveys collecting material across the country and British territories. The mineral specimens are mainly from across Australia, with a strong representation from major mineral deposits such as Broken Hill, and almost 40% from the rest of the world. The majority of fossils are from Australia, with a small proportion from lands historically or currently under Australian control, such as Papua New Guinea and the Australian Antarctic Territory.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 1950-01-01
- Date (Publication)
- 2021-09-09T02:18:39
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144615
Identifier
- Codespace
-
Digital Object Identifier
- Cited responsible party
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author Geoscience Australia
External Contact
- Purpose
-
Specimens in the collection are derived from Geoscience Australia (GA) surveys, submissions by researchers, donations, purchases and bequests. A number of mineral specimens are held on behalf of the National Museum of Australia.
- Status
- On going
- Point of contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Resource provider Office of the Chief Scientist
External Contact Point of contact Schroeder, N.
Office of the Chief Scts Internal Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Annually
Resource format
- Title
-
Product data repository: Various Formats
- Protocol
-
FILE:DATA-DIRECTORY
- Name of the resource
-
Data Store directory containing the digital product files
- Description
-
Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
-
-
EARTH SCIENCES
-
- {1}
-
-
HVC_144615
-
HVC - High Value Collection
-
DC2020
-
Museum
-
Mineral
-
Fossil
-
Gemstone
-
Meteorite
-
Commonwealth Palaeontological Collection
-
Rock Thin Section
-
Mineralogy
-
Palaeontology
-
Paleontology
-
Holotype
-
Type Collection
-
Resource
-
Published_External
-
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
-
CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice facsimile
- OnLine resource
-
View catalogue records associated with this collection
View catalogue records associated with this collection
- Distribution format
-
Resource lineage
- Statement
-
<b>Source: </b>A national collection of significance containing rare and irreplaceable specimens which continue to be accessed for research, education and outreach. There is a significant number of type specimens which have been published in scientific journals and now form an essential scientific reference. The collection is governed under financial and cultural heritage Acts.<br />
<br />
<b>Form: </b>Physical specimens with a museum collections management system (in development) for associated metadata <br />
<br />
This Collection record was created to enhance the discoverability and management of the individual products contained in the collection. See the individual eCat records for product specific lineage.
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/a73ca4b9-bbd3-43c1-a2d7-915c69e25d47
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Schroeder, N.
Office of the Chief Scts Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Collection
- Name
-
Geoscience Australia (GA) High Value Collection
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/144615
- Date info (Creation)
- 2025-06-26T00:42:11.003Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2021-01-06T02:21:10
- Date info (Revision)
- 2025-06-26T00:43:07.164Z
Metadata standard
- Title
-
AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO 19115-3
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
-
Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551