Winter is the perfect time to head a little inland to check out the Gemfield region of Rubyvale, Sapphire and Annakie in search of SAPPHIRES.
We stayed a total of 9 nights as there are plenty of camping opportunities...caravan parks, a free reserve and on the fossicking fields, some very close to the towns. Tomahawk Ck. Glenalva and The Willows were a little further away.
Plenty to do and explore
Sit in a hole or dry river bed and dig out the gravel wash caught around the billy boulder layer, then sieve it. We got our fossicking licence online for $12 and equipped with own sieves, geologists pick and shovel headed out. All the gear can be hired though. I still have a large bucket of wash gravel in the car to wash and sieve through. But so far no luck for a lot of hard work.....it was good fun though! Best time to go is after a heavy rainfall as the sapphires are easier to spot when the gravel is washed away a bit.
If you don’t want to dig and sieve your own dirt on the fossicking reserves you can buy a bucket or bag of “wash” gravel direct from the commercial mines (some are underground some opencut) and have a play at one of the many fossicking tourist parks. Price between $15 and $25 a bucket or bag. We tried Armfest Mine and Gemfields Fossicking Park.
Sapphires come in all colours..see above... Rubys are actually red sapphires, star sapphires are rare as are pink
Amongst our finds, a star sapphire which we had cut and set. 4.34 carots....value before set is about $425. The star has 6 legs and moves around the top of the stone depending on the angle of the light. I was so excited to have a great piece of jewellery to take away and remember our visit.
Also found a “bomb”, too many cracks, but was told it will skin polish beautifully...its huge 2.5cm big and very thick
Sapphire and Zircons, natural and then held up to the light....tons of greens, yellows and pale blues
My rare pink one...it really isn’t purple, also a garnet not ruby
Top left are the cuttable zircons and sapphires...no cracks.. I also have another 4 small star sapphires, probably too small to cut
Our total haul....tons of fun
Climb Policeman’s Knob, the oldest volcanic plug in the world, 56million years old. These plugs dot the region and are responsible for spitting out the sapphires to the surface. Plenty of rock wallabies call it home..they were huge and chubby.
Our total haul....tons of fun
Climb Policeman’s Knob, the oldest volcanic plug in the world, 56million years old. These plugs dot the region and are responsible for spitting out the sapphires to the surface. Plenty of rock wallabies call it home..they were huge and chubby.
View over the gemfields from the top
Sightsee all the local mining claims (mostly looked like shanty shacks..not allowed permanent structures on a lease), and visit Thong tree. I lost my other black thong in South Aust and always hoped it would turn up in the car. So added my remaining thong to the tree
Take an underground mine tour. Cross the Tropic of Capricorn between Sapphire and Rubyvale.
The Piano Tuners grave in the middle of nowhere....they buried him where they found him after drowning in the flooded river, only his coffin kept floating to the surface...long story but worth reading.
There are weekend markets, and plenty of lorikeets that that hang out all over our caravan and know when it is breakfast and dinner time, even try to take food off our plates. Just as well we have a bag of sunflower seeds to keep them occupied. They have to be our bird of the week, so beautiful but they drove us nuts.
Have good food in the great outdoors, and meet new interesting people along the way
Enjoy the company of local cows, horses, guinea foul and camels who roam the region freely. This area is the only “town common” left in Australia.
And catch up with our dear friends who were also out roaming the Qld/SA/NT outback. Our paths finally crossed.
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