  The Dalgaranga meteorite crater, 100 km northeast of Yalgoo, Western
Australia, was one of the first impact structures identified in Australia, the
smallest isolated crater found in Australia, and the only confirmed crater in
the world associated with a mesosiderite projectile. 17 years passed before the
Dalgaranga meteorites were described in the scientific literature and nearly 40
years passed before a survey of the structure was published. The reasons for
the time-gap were never explained and a number of factual errors about the
discovery and early history remain uncorrected in the scientific literature.
Using historical and archival documents, and discussions with people involved
in Dalgaranga research, the reasons for this time gap are explained by a series
of minor misidentifications and coincidences. The age of the crater has yet to
be determined, but using published data, we estimate the projectile mass to be
500-1000 kg.
