Henbury Pearls are small impact-formed glass beads associated with the Henbury crater field in the Northern Territory of Australia. The craters formed when an Iron meteorite fragmented and struck the Central Australian desert, creating a cluster of impact structures now protected within the Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve. The Northern Territory Government describes the event as occurring around 4,700 years ago, while studies of the crater field record Henbury as one of Australia’s best-known small impact sites.

Henbury Pearls are typically small brown to black glassy beads or droplets produced when target rocks and meteoritic material were melted during the impact. Published descriptions of Henbury impactites note that molten droplets were ejected during crater formation and solidified into small glassy beads found in crater walls and ejecta. Recent work describes Henbury impact glass as dark, iron-rich silicate glass containing a measurable contribution from the IIIAB Iron impactor.

Studying Henbury Pearls provides insight into impact melting, droplet formation, and the interaction between extraterrestrial metal and terrestrial target rocks. For collectors, they offer a rare and specialised form of Australian Impactite, closely linked to a confirmed crater field and the Henbury Iron meteorite event. Each specimen represents a tiny remnant of molten material produced during one of Australia’s most important impact events.