Amber Listserv / australian amber

Tue Sep 4 21:31:19 EDT 2007

Hi Andy ,
thanks for your mail.
Sorry no ideas on the amber producing tree however some think maybe from a Kauri of some sort.    The Kauri Pine (Agathis ) is a different species to the ones found in New Zealand. Could be possible that the tree that produced the Borneo amber may have grown in Cape York?
Would be very interesting if the possible ''pods''  turned out to be the same! they do take an amazing polish.
Thats great John .F. has your amber signiture, as he has tested Aust amber in Poland also a few years ago, JOHN would it be possible to have  these signitures compared  for us?
I have a copy some where if you can not find the Aust. amber copy?
60 MYO is a great age for Tertiary amber, which is what the Aussi stuff may be,  (Tertiary but how old ?)do you find Lignite with some of your amber?The majority of pieces I find are tansparent red  , and have a blue or green florecene.
The black looking peice ( red) is in its natural form, I havent found any with a thick crust. The only crusty type pieces are more like Peders amber from Denmark and have a hard yellow coating.         photo attached.
thanks for your mail.
kind regards Dale

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Andy Ng 
  To: Amber Oz 
  Cc: amber group ; tamber12 at aol.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 9:47 AM
  Subject: Re: Amber Listserv / australian amber

  Dale, your photo just gave me an instant headache. Seed pods...so that's what they were. Am afraid I've committed many of them to the garbage truck over the years. I thought they were just junk that wouldn't take a polish. If I come across any more, I'll be keeping them. 

  As for comparing Borneo amber to the stuff you found, I don't mind a swap, but judging from burn, scent and polish would be a tad inconclusive and arbitrary. If you'd ask John Fudala, mabye he could have IRS performed on your pieces? They already have my stuff's IRS signature in Poland, so comparing them would be a snap, and make for a much more conclusive comparison. I don't know what tree they came from; John mentioned that the signature matched that of the dipterocarpe family. Any ideas on the trees from whence your amber sprang from? Judging from looks alone, I'd say it came from that same family of trees. 

  I'm sending a few pieces to James Cornell over in the US for identification of the bugs within. One of those pieces contains at least 3 insects and was part of the first chunk of amber I found around the Danum valley earlier this year. That's a rainforest that's supposedly 60MYO. The coloration of that area's amber is different from the normal dark ones, more akin to a translucent yellow-orange. Maybe James can also lend his expertise to identifying the amber itself. 

  Dale, with reference to that black-looking piece on the left, was the crust removed or was it found like that? I've been given chunks of resinites hauled in by trawler boats before and while some had barnacles on them, most had one thing in common: a very thick crust (sometimes more than 1cm thick). That thick crust would definitely provide much protection against the rigors of a long ocean voyage. 

  Andy

  On 9/5/07, Amber Oz <dalewicks at ledanet.com.au> wrote:
    hi guys,
    thanks for your interesting mail .
    its true that the source is not yet discovered and flow currents do pass down that way the amber is found.
    The similarity to Borneo amber is interesting also, the looks are simular,  the aussie amber isn't rounded and or weathered from ocean travel, 
    Another strange occurrence  is the amber pods (seeds that are totally amberised) which I havent seen in other ambers and not yet explained by scientists (here in Aust)  attaching photo.
    If anyone has seen this in amber could you please send info?
    There has been IRS test done also. and not yet matching.
    Progress is slow but have just been up north with scientests and results will start to come in let you know when this happens.
    If interested Andy, would you like to swap apiece of Borneo for an Aust peice of amber, we could do some tests to see if it may be the the same or simular? ie burn ,smell , polish? could be interesting.
    Andy do you know which tree produced the Borneo amber?
    all the best Dale

    ---- Original Message ----- 
      From: tamber12 at aol.com 
      To: andy.ng.aik.hoe at gmail.com 
      Cc: dalewicks at ledanet.com.au ; amber at ambericawest.com 
      Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 5:07 AM
      Subject: Re: Amber Listserv / australian amber

      Andy, the amber Dale Wicks has found has been labeled "Wickite", but as yet we don't have a proven Aussie source.  It's hypothesized that there is one, it's just that they are only now getting to the point of looking for it actively.  Dale has been a busy amber hunter and spent much time in the bush lately.  He will have much to tell soon, I hope.  If it is found that Australia has a natural amber source, he's the guy that made it happen.  As it is, he's the reason we have all this Aussie amber to talk about anyway and I think it's all very exciting, however it got there.  Just think, out on a boat on the Great Barrier Reef, coasting up into the river valleys and getting out on a beach to dig around and look for amber.  Dodging crocodiles and other critters is your only danger.  I think I could deal with that.  

      Tammi

      -----Original Message-----
      From: Andy Ng <andy.ng.aik.hoe at gmail.com>
      To: tamber12 at aol.com <tamber12 at aol.com>
      Cc: dalewicks at ledanet.com.au; amber at ambericawest.com
      Sent: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 12:51 pm
      Subject: Re: Amber Listserv / australian amber

      Tammi, thank you for a very logical hypothesis (re: ocean currents washing resinites from the Indonesian islands down to Oz). It may well be the case, and bears further investigation. 

      Another possibility exists: that such resinites were produced locally over there by indigenous dipterocarpe trees. Darwin is rather similar in climate and vegetation to my neck of the woods. Maybe millennia ago, there were rainforest trees there pumping out resins as well. 

      BTW, if my foggy memory didn't fail me, I recall that Aussie amber had already been proven to exist and is named Wickite? It's only logical to assume that any place that supported vegetation in the past would have very high chances of having resins being exuded by injured trees, and said resins turning to amber over the course of time. Indeed, I'd be very surprised if any place that had supported vegetation in the past was devoid of amber. 

      Andy

      On 9/4/07, tamber12 at aol.com < tamber12 at aol.com> wrote: 
        Andy, I've looked into that some and I'm more inclined to believe it has to do with ocean currents washing the resins onto the Aussie shores.  New Zealand has similar resin finds on the most southern tip, and no natural deposits but if you look at the flow of current coming from the direction of the Indonesian land mass, the current is such that buoyant materials could be transported in that direction. Just my thinking on the case.  Either way, there is such a variety of neat stuff coming from Dale's finds that I keep hoping they will discover natural deposits there.  I believe some of the strata in Cape York is old enough to support it, and that in time it will be proven.  

        Dale, thanks for sharing and for giving us something new to talk about!

        Tammi 

        -----Original Message-----
        From: Andy Ng <andy.ng.aik.hoe at gmail.com>
        To: Amber Oz <dalewicks at ledanet.com.au>
        Cc: amber group <amber at ambericawest.com>
        Sent: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 1:19 am
        Subject: Re: Amber Listserv / australian amber

        Nice one Dale. I'm again struck by the remarkable similarity between Borneo and Aussie amber. Does anyone know if these 2 places used to be a single landmass with common flora?

        Andy

        On 9/3/07, Amber Oz <dalewicks at ledanet.com.au > wrote: 
          hi,
          hope all are good.
          l have been collecting australian amber for the past month and have found some nice pieces, attaching a photo of a couple.
          also an interesting deposit of lignite that has been dated as miocene in age.as yet no assosiation ith the aust. amber. 
          all the best dale

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