The Scotch College geological collection

The Scotch College Geological collection has been built up over a century (since 1904) from a time when the school was only 7 years old.

It is a resource that no school could assemble quickly if it wished to run a course in Earth Science, and could not be purchased anywhere commercially. We spoke to Tony Marrion, Head of Science 1976 – 2002 about the importance of Scotch’s own geological museum and his role in preserving it.

Can you tell us a little about the collection and why it is so special?

The collection represents about 118 years of Earth Science education for past students of Scotch College. The alumni who studied matriculation Geology here are effectively the “owners” of the collection and for that reason I think it is important it becomes established as part of the school’s archives (but still housed in the Science Building). The collection has about 10,000 specimens and is the cumulative result of a century of field work in the South-West, the Goldfields and the Pilbara of W.A. Some specimens have been donated by Old Scotch Collegians who have collected them overseas.

Over the last 30 years growing, maintaining, and cataloguing the specimens has been a labour of love. Can you tell us about your passion for this collection and how you became its custodian?

Bill Dickinson asked me to teach Geology when he appointed me as a Chemistry teacher in 1973. I had some Geology in my degrees anyway so it suited me. My predecessor, Harold Broadbent, was about to retire and he mentored me for three years, and for his input into my teaching I will always remain immensely grateful. Many students who took this subject did so because they found Chemistry and Physics too hard, but this gave them an “integrated” science as an alternative. It was “integrated” in that it taught them some Chemistry in the study of minerals, some Physics in the study of earth structure through earthquake detection, measurement and location, sonar exploration and remote sensing, and some Biology in studying the fossil record of flora and fauna through geological time. The enthusiasm and learning response shown by the boys fed my passion for using the collection to show them the amazing world in which they lived.

Gathering the specimens has been a collective effort by the students of Geology at Scotch throughout the decades. There must be memories of expeditions that have taken place in the past 30 years or of interesting finds.

Some of the most productive exercises involved constructing geological maps of areas of WA. It usually meant a week of camping and walking vast distances. In different years we mapped the nickel dome at Kambalda, the Cretaceous sediments of Gingin, the Jurassic sediments of Geraldton, the Permian sediments of the Irwin River Valley, the pre-Cambrian igneous structures in the Pilbara, the metamorphic rocks of Toodyay, the complex rocks of the KalgoorlieBoulder Goldfields, the igneous rocks of the Darling Scarp and Plateau, the recent sediments of the Perth Basin and the coastal limestone deposits of Point Peron. These expeditions resulted in a wealth of minerals, rocks and fossils which can now be enjoyed in the showcases on the second floor of the Science building. The first dinosaur bone found in WA was collected on a Scotch expedition to the Jurassic of Geraldton. It now resides in the WA Museum!

Whilst the collection is undeniably important to Scotch College, it must also be a valuable resource for Geologists across Western Australian and academic institutions?

Interest has been shown in the collection by the WA Museum and the UWA Geology Department. One year we were visited by a research geologist from India who had been directed to us from UWA. He was studying the fossilized marine fauna on the east coast of India and wanted to compare it to the fossilized marine fauna on our west coast. Two hundred million years ago the two coastlines were together (in a theoretical ancient supercontinent, Gondwanaland). When separated by continental drift the fauna in the shallow sea between India and Western Australia would have been the same. As this is found to be the case, it supports our confidence in the theory of plate tectonics. In a small way our collection has contributed to confirming it.

How are you training the next generation of curators and what is your greatest hope for the future of the Collection?

I wish I had a future curator to pass the care of it on to, but at present there is no one. My greatest hope is that when I get it into top condition, preserved as a component of the school archives, a future staff member in Science, with the right background, might be interested in taking a curatorial role, or even running a school-based subject in it. If in future it returns as an academic university entrance subject, Scotch has all the resources necessary to address it.

Many old Scotch Collegians have been awakened to their future careers as geologists in the Science Department at Scotch. If you could reach out to them, what would you say?

I hope your memory of Geology studies is not just dust and heat, freezing mornings, ants, midges and rocky ground to sleep on, but also excitement at discovering and understanding what you could about the wonderful earth on which we live.

Were you one of Tony’s geologists and have photos or memories to share? Get in touch with OSC@ scotch.wa.edu.au or with our archivist kyle.shutterworth@scotch.com.edu.au