Species | Great White Shark |
---|---|
Sex | Female |
Died | 1997 South Australia |
Cause of death | Bycatch |
Known for | Novelty attraction |
Rosie is a preserved great white shark located at Crystal World Exhibition Centre in Devon Meadows, Australia. She was originally preserved in a glass tank of formaldehyde on display at Wildlife Wonderland in Bass, Victoria [1] which closed in 2012 due to animal welfare concerns and operating without appropriate licences. [2] She was an urban exploration destination at the abandoned park until being recovered and transferred to the Crystal World Exhibition Centre, where she is undergoing restoration.
The great white shark was killed after becoming caught in fishing nets on the coast of South Australia in 1997. [3] Seal Rocks Sea Life Centre initially showed interest in purchasing the shark from the Lukin family, but later decided against the purchase. Wildlife Wonderland purchased her instead. [4]
As the shark was being transported to Wildlife Wonderland in Victoria in a refrigerated truck, [5] it was impounded by the Government of South Australia because a woman had been reported missing, requiring a necropsy of the shark at the South Australian Museum. [6]
Following the necropsy, the shark was preserved in a formaldehyde solution in a custom-built tank. [4]
Founder of Wildlife Wonderland, John Matthews recalled the operation of ownership: "It was a huge logistical operation, working with Melbourne Museum, and all up cost us about $500,000."
"We had to build a purpose-built room and the roof had to be removed and the shark craned in and put into a new, sealed tank." [4] [ unreliable source? ]
Due to the toxicity of Rosie's tank room from the harmful chemicals, if Matthews had not been wearing a hazmat suit, he would only have be able to spend around a minute in the room. Had he not followed those precautions, he would have experienced irritation in the eyes, nose and throat, after a long period of time he would likely have breathing problems.
In 2012, Wildlife Wonderland was reported to have been operating its business without appropriate licenses, forcing it to cease operations and surrender all live animals to RSPCA Australia and the Department of Sustainability and Environment Victoria. [2] [7]
In November 2018, a video released on YouTube by urban explorer Luke McPherson showed inside the decaying wildlife park and later stumbling upon the shark tank. [8] Months after, the YouTube video gained millions of views, prompting a rise in trespassing into the property to view the shark, with vandals also damaging and graffitiing the tank and its surroundings. [9] Objects such as chairs were also thrown into the tank. [10] Local police issued public warnings of the dangers of visiting the shark, following the damage done to the shark's vitrine which caused carcinogenic formaldehyde vapours to leak from the tank. [11]
Tom Kapitany directed the restoration efforts of Rosie at the Crystal World Exhibition Centre located at 13 Olive Road, Devon Meadows, Victoria, Australia. Staff of the exhibition centre have flushed the formaldehyde out of the enclosure to replace it with glycerol as a safer alternative for the preservative solution. [12] [13]
Delays were encountered along the restoration process due to the cost involved in filling the tank with glycerol, Tom Kapitany noted as saying "Ultimately we'll need 19,500 litres, which will cost us $60,000 AUD". [5]
A documentary is being filmed by Flying Fox Productions that follows the story of Rosie the Shark's history, destruction, rescue, and restoration.
Initially upon taking ownership of the shark, Kapitany sought advice from a shark and taxidermy expert, stating "At the beginning, we consulted a shark and taxidermy expert about the best way to preserve her and there was no easy way to do it. Everything had a compromise and a problem". He added, upon advice from glass experts regarding the smashed glass panels around the enclosure, "There are four layers of glass and just one layer is broken, so we’re keeping it because it’s all part of the story".
The shark has since been freely on display at Crystal World Exhibition Centre while restoration efforts continue, with constant monitoring and injections of glycerol into the exposed parts of the shark until the tank is finally completely filled with the preservative. [14]
The Grampians National Park commonly referred to as the Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Jardwadjali name for the mountain range itself is Gariwerd.
The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its 990,000-square-foot (92,000 m2) exhibition space to display examples of technology developed in the Industrial Revolution. Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet (564 m) long, with an interior height of 128 feet (39 m), and was three times the size of St Paul's Cathedral.
A swamp is a forested wetland. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in creating this environment. Swamps vary in size and are located all around the world. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water, or seawater. Freshwater swamps form along large rivers or lakes where they are critically dependent upon rainwater and seasonal flooding to maintain natural water level fluctuations. Saltwater swamps are found along tropical and subtropical coastlines. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation or soil saturation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more formally termed a bog, fen, or muskeg. Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo.
Conservation in Australia is an issue of state and federal policy. Australia is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, with a large portion of species endemic to Australia. Preserving this wealth of biodiversity is important for future generations. 25% of Australia is managed for conservation.
Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body by mounting or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word taxidermy describes the process of preserving the animal, but the word is also used to describe the end product, which are called taxidermy mounts or referred to simply as "taxidermy".
The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest living artist, with his wealth estimated at US$384 million in the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List. During the 1990s his career was closely linked with the collector Charles Saatchi, but increasing frictions came to a head in 2003 and the relationship ended.
The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a rather vaguely defined area of about 245,000 square kilometres (95,000 sq mi) behind the northern coast from the Northern Territory capital of Darwin across to Arnhem Land with the Indian Ocean on the west, the Arafura Sea to the north, and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the east, and with the almost waterless semi-arid interior of Australia to the south, beyond the huge Kakadu National Park.
The Bass Coast Shire is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the southeastern part of the state. It covers an area of 866 square kilometres (334 sq mi) and in June 2018 had a population of 35,327. It includes the towns of Bass, Cape Paterson, Cape Woolamai, Corinella, Coronet Bay, Cowes, Inverloch, Kilcunda, Lang Lang, Newhaven, Rhyll, San Remo, Summerlands and Wonthaggi as well as the historic locality of Krowera. It also includes the popular tourist destination Phillip Island. It was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the Shire of Bass, Shire of Phillip Island, Borough of Wonthaggi, parts of the Shire of Woorayl, Shire of Korumburra and City of Cranbourne.
The Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage-listed building in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, built in 1879–1880 as part of the international exhibition movement, which presented over 50 exhibitions between 1851 and 1915 around the globe. The building sits on approximately 26 hectares, is 150 metres (490 ft) long and is surrounded by four city streets. It is at 9 Nicholson Street in the Carlton Gardens, flanked by Victoria, Carlton and Rathdowne Streets, at the north-eastern edge of the central business district. It was built to host the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880–81, and then hosted the even larger Centennial International Exhibition in 1888, and the formal opening of the first Parliament of Australia in 1901. The building is representative of the money and pride Victoria had in the 1870s. Throughout the 20th century smaller sections and wings of the building were subject to demolition and fire; however, the main building, known as the Great Hall, survived.
Carl Ethan Akeley was a pioneering American taxidermist, sculptor, biologist, conservationist, inventor, and nature photographer, noted for his contributions to American museums, most notably to the Milwaukee Public Museum, Field Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History. He is considered the father of modern taxidermy. He was the founder of the AMNH Exhibitions Lab, the interdisciplinary department that fuses scientific research with immersive design.
Crystal Brook is a town in the Mid North of South Australia, 197 kilometres north of the capital, Adelaide. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the town was 1,322. Crystal Brook is in a very picturesque location, being at the start of the Flinders Ranges. The town has multiple viewing points and parks. It was named after the spring-fed creek next to which it was founded.
Andrew Barclay Sons & Co., currently operating as Brodie Engineering, is a railway engineering company, specialising in the heavy maintenance, refurbishment and overhauls for both passenger and freight rolling stock. Based around its works at Kilmarnock, it is the only active rail engineering business in Scotland.
Sea Life Sunshine Coast at Mooloolaba, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia is a marine mammal park, oceanarium and wildlife sanctuary. Sea Life Sunshine Coast is an institutional member of the Zoo and Aquarium Association (ZAA). The attraction is a Sea Life Centre owned by Merlin Entertainments, and is globally referred to as Sea Life Sunshine Coast by the firm. It was formerly known as UnderWater World.
Bass is a small rural town 113 kilometres (70 mi) south-east of Melbourne via the South Gippsland and Bass Highways, in the Bass Coast Shire of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. At the 2006 census, Bass and the surrounding area had a population of 937.
Natural burial is the interment of the body of a dead person in the soil in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition but allows the body to be naturally recycled. It is an alternative to typical contemporary Western burial methods and modern funerary customs.
Crystal Palace (High Level) was a railway station in South London. It was one of two stations built to serve the new site of the Great Exhibition building, the Crystal Palace, when it was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham Hill after 1851. It was the terminus of the Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway (CPSLJR), which was later absorbed by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR). The station closed permanently in 1954.
A public aquarium (pl. aquaria) or public water zoo is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, which houses living aquatic animal and plant specimens for public viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept by home aquarists, as well as smaller tanks.
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living is an artwork created in 1991 by Damien Hirst, an English artist and a leading member of the "Young British Artists". It consists of a preserved tiger shark submerged in formalin in a glass-panel display case.
Tom Kapitany is an Australian botanist, geologist and entrepreneur. Kapitany is the director of Crystal World in Victoria, Australia, a director of National Dinosaur Museum in Canberra, Australia, a director of Collectors Corner Garden World in Braeside, Victoria, Australia, director of Australian Mineral Mines Pty. Ltd. and an international consultant for museums and universities, particularly in China, Mexico, UK, US, New Zealand and Indonesia with regards to geology.