Mooka Springs is now part of the Kennedy Ranges National
Park .
Tom Kapitany and Johan Pas were very fortunate to be the
last miners to obtain a mining license in the area situated
on Mooka Station which is now controlled by the Dept of
Conservation and Environment . The area can be accessed by
crossing the Gascoyne River (which can be quite a challenge
) with four or 6 wheel drive vehicles only .
Two existing mining licenses exist in the area as well.
These two leases are confined to the river bed where the
Mookaite is exposed and easily mined. The last twenty years
of mining have depleted the reserves of high quality,
multicolored Mookaite. though brightly colored mookaite can
be seen strewn throughout the river bed from these mining
activities .
The name Mooka is said to be an aboriginal word meaning “
running waters”, discussions with Maureen Dodd, who is the
matriarch of the Gnulli Gnulli peoples whom are the
traditional owners of the area, said she was not aware of
the origin of the name. The area is surrounded by a number
of sacred sites and water holes, with Mookaite being used as
an important stone for the manufacture of stone tool
implements .
Mookaite is made up of billions of fossilized silicate
skeletons of marine organisms called Radiolarians ,
They are found as
zooplankton
throughout the ocean, and their skeletal remains cover large
portions of the ocean bottom as
radiolarian ooze
This ooze has been heated (metamorphosed )over the millenia
of time and the
porcelanized mud formed the Mookaite . The colors were added
by the manganese and iron minerals weathering from the
Kennedy Ranges into Mooka Spring and staining the mookaite
.Geologically Mookaite is described as an opaline to
chalcedonic mineral.
The
geological unit is called the
Windalia Radiolarite which is Cretaceous (Albian)
It contains the fossilized remains of the
benthic foraminiferal
Aaptotoichus pitmani Zones and
the dinoflagellate M.
tetracantha and
Diconodinium davidii Zones.
In these zones we also find Belemnites
Neohibilites
Sp and poorly preserved ammonite castes (undescribed).
Fragmentary ichthyosaur material , mainly vertebrae ,
Araucaria wood (Peanut wood ) and fragmentary vegetative
material is found the overlying sediment silicate calcrete
.
Unusual Oncolite and stromatolitic appearance like
structures are also found in the area .
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