Richmond Rocks, NQ. For Michael.

Michael, remember how, several month back, we were talking about the strange and inexplicable things to be found scattered throughout Australia? And how I started telling you about one of the things I find the strangest? Remember? Richmond Rocks? But then David thought I was talking about diodes ...

A very bad photo of a diode.
If it were a better one,
you'd notice that inside is
hollow with a rim of crystals.

... aka Thundereggs ... and so we veered sideways and talked about those instead, despite them not being nearly as totally and bizarrely mind-boggling as Richmond Rocks.

Like I said back then, I don't know what Richmond Rocks actually are - if they are an odd sort of diode or not - but I doubt anyone does. They are very rare so I doubt they've yet been studied by anyone. However, I do know that they don't have crystals inside. What is inside - the odd times that people do break them open - is a little iron-esque ball which, if sawn in half, sometimes contains fossils of fish, but most often contains nothing at all. Iron. Iron. Iron. All the way through.

Since I promised to get photos next time I was in the Richmond Region of NQ and because I kinda was, here are a few ...

A cannonball-shaped Richmond Rock

A broken cannonball
Note the lack of crystal rim

OK, now you've seen them you're undoubtedly thinking "They aren't strange at all!" but trust me, they are. First off, they're only found in the Richmond Region of the desert Outback of North Queensland and are actually miniatures of the beyond-mind-boggling giant rocks found further out in the Queensland Outback at the place called Devils Marbles. Those ones are like TOO MUCH! My mind can't even get around these miniature ones, so I can't even begin to comprehend something like the Devils Marbles ... so let's ignore the giant ones and just talk about these littlies instead.

These ones only mysteriously appear after it rains, which it does only about once every 18 years, and they always come in one of four shapes - cannonballs, eggs, flagstones and hamburgers - but, whatever the shape, they all share the same characteristics, and it is those characteristics that make them so mind-boggling and, well, have you forever questioning the whole idea of what constitutes BEING ALIVE.

Living rocks? WHY do I think so? Well, for many reasons. One of them is this:

An almost completely self-healed cannonball
Several more months and it'd be completely reformed.

Honest! If they break and you leave the iron-esque ball inside, the rock reforms around it and eventually completely restores itself. They don't even have a scar.

Also, if you accidently use a flagstone-shaped Richmond Rock in a cement path, it'll shake itself loose. They don't like being hemmed in.

Baby, don't fence me in!

And then there's the odd, odd, odd fact that they reproduce. Yup! They have babies. What happens is that these rocks suddenly produce a blister which grows and grows until it's identical to the parent rock, and then it breaks off and becomes its own individual rock.

Although I couldn't find a rock that was actually having a baby, I did find one that had just broken away from "mummy". AND that break-off wound will eventually heal over!

Have I blown you totally away yet? Yes? Anyway, when I've gone through my photos again I'll see if there are any more shots of Richmond Rocks that will blow you away even further. No promises, however!