Gemseek in Sapphire Central Queensland

Sapphires are one of my favourite gemstones and some of the best come from Sapphire in central Queensland, so I was very excited to visit for the first time and the prospect of finding some of my own. We had heard that Big Besse fossicking field was easy access for the caravan considering the recent rain and here you can camp besides your digging so we headed straight to the fossicking area.

The Blue hollow mine is situated right beside Big Besse and it’s always good to have a yarn with the locals before setting camp. Peter & Debbie owner operators of the mine were more than welcoming and before long we had all the contacts we needed for a successful film shoot and comfortable stay.

 

It’s great when things fall into place and they certainly did in Sapphire within a couple days we were filming. We saw various ways to mine for sapphires, from the old fashioned windless winch still in operation, and the smallest of tunnels known as “tummy tunnels” used to reduce the amount of dirt needing to be moved and usually no more than a bucket height. These tummy tunnels were way too small for me to crawl through and thankfully too wet. After the recent rain the tunnels needed to be pumped out before anyone could go down.

Rain had been a constant problem since 2008 when the area suffered a 100 year flood. The photographs of the flood were impressive but did not reflect the suffering felt from the effects, small hand miners in particular and many still have not recovered from their loss.

We set our camp at Big Besse right on the hill overlooking Blue Hollow mine, but as soon as the chores were done I was off to have a scratch around. The gravel wash level is 1-2 foot deep and very easy to access. There were many abandoned holes from the previous season so it wasn’t long before I was head down and bottom up down a hole. Usually water for washing the gravel is scarce but thanks to Mother Nature that wouldn’t be a problem this visit, but there is a good and bad side to many things and excess water brought the mosquitoes in their thousands and hot humid weather.

What I did not expect to find during my scratching time was Opal, that’s right Boulder Opal beside the caravan in the dirt. I suspect a previous fossicker had bought a bag of wash from an Opal area and sieved it at Big Besse, how amusing, and there were a couple of nice pieces too.

Our visit to film the Desperado mine in Rubyvale some 10kms away was a great adventure into underground mechanical mining for sapphires. Peter is a one man band underground with camera remote operation above ground; he literally could be in two places at once. The mechanical digger and front end tipper increase the amount of dirt moved per day dramatically and their claims had produced many fine sapphires over the years. Eileen his wife managers their shop The Gem Gallery were you can view their exquisite home grown jewellery.

We have found some extremely talented people living in out back places and Sapphire/Rubyvale was no exception. From master jewellers and craftsman to engineers who are shipping their home grown VJ faceting machine all over the world. Who would'nt want one of these machines, easy to use and with a life time garrentee.



It was also very refreshing to meet young people digging who are just as enthusiastic as their  pioneering forefathers; like 83 years young, Bill Hagan (Gem trader) born & bread in Rubyvale. We were honoured to spend a wonderful couple of hours chatting with Bill about the old boom days and the struggles they faced and he was very keen to show us his treasures from those days, a very fine collection.

 Our very busy 10 day visit to Sapphire and Rubyvale was soon over and yet we still did not have that special keep sake stone to take home, so we decided to take a couple of days out and camp at Glenalva near the Willows some 30kms west and renowned for good parti sapphires. 

The first morning at Glenalva Laurie (my partner) and I really got into moving some dirt as it was a nice overcast day and perfect for digging. Laurie left the site to make lunch and that’s when it happened, a very nice clean blue/ green 25 caret sapphire with a yellow ting in the centre, sitting right in the middle of my last sieve before lunch.

I hopped and skipped back to Laurie at camp it was the special we had been looking for. We dug with gusto many more buckets that afternoon and the next day but to no avail, we had our special that was it but Glenalva we’ll be back.

We are now off to Theresa Creek Dam, near Clermont in Central Queensland for some Gold detecting lessons with our new Mine lab detectors, and a new adventure into Red Claw netting, so till then stay safe,

And remember look after those Gems!

AL.B & Laurie C





 

Gemseek in Lightning Ridge in search of Black Opal

Gemseek in Lightning Ridge home of the famous Black Opal

Having left a trail of mud kilometres long we were thankful to be on the bitchamen again, with the help of a local “cow cocky” so it was onward to Lightning Ridge, (no more stops in muddy creek banks) to power up & clean up at the tourist caravan park ready for filming our DVD series episode 2 on Australian Opal.

Clubs and Pubs are a great place to meet the locals in most Australian country towns and Lightning Ridge was no exception, so having cleaned up it was off to the Bowling club for dinner and a chat.

After a good meal we started to mingle around in the lounge bar, it was a great few hours and within walkable distance from the caravan park a real plus. We heard many interesting and perhaps “tall” stories that night of Opal fortunes in the good old days.

Lightning ridge in the good old days looked more like a lunar surface; scrub has grown to hide the 40,000 estimate of mine shafts & mollic heaps.

We heard the “Ridge” as it is affectionately called is home to approximately? No one knows the figure & some say there are fewer than 40 active opal miners in town, and that the Ridge is dead. The population does wain in summer as the mercury tops out at 50 degrees Celsius the majority of people head for the coast & a cooler summer. If it has been a good year then accommodation is ***** 5 star and worth lavishing on oneself after a season of mining, after all its hard work, or is it? These days there is “Big Foot”.

Having been down quite a few mines in my time I was very interested to see “big foot” in action $70,000 worth of equipment to make mining safer & faster. ( Sorry photo of Big foot pending)

We headed off west 65kms to the Wee Warra Opal fields with Richard and his mate Paul alias Pee Body to do a day’s work mining. The Wee Warra fields on the Cumborah road had good indications of Opal bearing ground & a lot of good seam opal has been and still is being dug from this field. Our hosts Richard & Justine Buckley from the Opal Bin are the proud owners of such a mine so we were very excited about the day ahead.

Just a minute I hear you say what are the surface indicators? Well you see Box trees and wild orange trees grow along fault lines to get water & when Ironstone & conglomerate rocks are also visible on the surface –it’s worth taking a deeper look because opal is mainly found around faults, Richard had found colour in all his test holes.

Out on this ridge the opal producing dirt is relatively shallow we were only 25feet down on the first level. We were also impressed with “Big foot” which removed about 12 meters of rock in just a few hours, to the waiting truck upstairs for washing at nearby wash and settling ponds. This huge beast grips into the rock ceiling to stabilize the machine then its long arm gouges out the wall in front and it wasn’t very long before we saw “colour” as it’s called.

They are very inventive people around here and the washing agitators were formally cement mixers. The truck load was tipped into a hopper then up a conveyer belt and into the agitator around she went tumbling the day’s dirt, breaking it up to reveal that precious Black Opal.

Waste dumps are not registered claims but are an excellent area for tourists to fossick, but do be careful & don’t touch equipment, if in doubt ask, as you don’t want the title of “Ratter”= someone who steals opal from someone else’s claim and it happens a lot up here.

Being 4pm there was a cold stubby waiting at the Pub in the scrub & that’s another story so that was it, the day was done and no-one had worked up a sweat. What light work mining can be if you have the right gear as well as the right claim?
We were approached in the main street with a huge piece of blue/green opal to film.

This piece had been a rough boulder presented at the club by an elderly lady asking $850, the money was quickly found for the prise was hidden inside. Rubbed back this piece of opal would fetch $50,000 in Sydney.

We spent 2 great weeks in Lightning Ridge and would certainly recommend it to anyone as a friendly helpful town with a difference, certainly not dead. There are lots of things to do and see in Lightning Ridge so plan to stay a few days at the very least. We have many good stories to share of our time there.

This truly is a community from all nations were they care passionately for their Opal and the people that live there, as well as those who pass through.

“The Ridge” has a charm of her own which keeps drawing you back till eventually you stay, I’m sure we will revisit, now that we have friends there, but for now it’s time to head north in search of different Gold & gemstones, until next time stay safe and look after those gems.

http://www.gemseek.com.au/

On the road again

After several delays and a last minute breaking problem withthe 4x4 and everything checked and rechecked a thousand times we finally headed west from our mountain retreat(Owls View) towards Lightning Ridge.
Our first night we pulled into Warialder Creek rest area and we meet a couple we'll call Margorie and Peter, great couple when we explained this was our first night as caravaner's they filled us with do and donts of the road, things to look out for such as weather reports. ( you'll see why I highlighted weather reports shortly) Second afternoon we found a idealic setting beside the Garwin Creek sun shining it was beautiful. We had made sure we were not in a soggy boggy spot but on high ground incase of flooding ha ha but what we had not figured into the equation was the road in ! it rained non stop all night so that in the morning the axcess road , was nothing but clay,growing boots I think the term is, with every step you gain height in clay clagged onto your boots, you can imagine what it did to the tyres.
We slipped and slidded everywere but managed to get with in 100meters from the bitumen before we could go no more. Greatfully an old cow cockie Keith came along with a grunty ute which managed to tow / pulled us out of the mud onto the road. Keith then gave us some timely advise on the soft edges and the importance of listening to weather reports, we truely felt like green horns.
Safe on the high way again we continued on to the saftey of Lightning Ridge tourist caravan park.
The following day " Fathers day I took Al on the most facinating of  pub crawl tours,50kms west of Lightning Ridge is a circuit of about 15kms of rough dirt road incorporating 3 licenced establishments, The pub in the crub, the sheep yards, and the Hilton.A great afternoon was had chatting to the districts miners, facinating charectors with great stories

Car problems delay leaving

Can you believe that after years of planning and months of getting everything ready for "the trip of a life time" (12 months around Australia fossicking and filming the treasures that are in our vast back yard,)
we have a  hiccup, in the breaks to the 4x4 are sounding more like the crunch of a hammer mill, not good when you have 2500 ton under tow. So we are in holding mode till a diagnosis is available from the mechanic in Dorrigo.
Its a case of all packed up and no were to go, we will keep you posted.

6 Days and counting

Well now reality is setting in no longer am I pinching myself to confirm reality, we are 6 days away from leaving on our biggest adventure. Today we packed all our worldly goods into a storage container not knowing when or were we will see our things again, it will be like christmas I should imagine?
But for now we are living like hermits swatting in an empty house wood fire burning, may have to bring out the candles to set the mood even more.
We will be picking up the van tomorrow its has been fitted with some extra gear to make ourselves more self suffient in the out back, we will post some footage soon on the van, which will be our home for the coming year at least.
Both Al and myself have since childhood dreamed of circumnavigating our way around Australia, now we get the opportunity to do that while filming our exciting new Gemstone Adventure series. How good does it get!
We will be bloging all the way so stay tuned we want to share the treasure hunt with you.

Warm regards
AL.B & Laurie C
 http://www.gemseek.com.au/

We first visited Koroit Queensland back in July 2005 and the experience has always kindled the longing to return one day. We found this ancient land to have a magical/ spiritual effect which is very hard to explain.

But what is the attraction for this isolated community with no electricity or running water, life is pretty rough with only shanty / camping type accommodation and too hot for any one to live there seven months of the year. To the guys and girls that mine this rugged mulga country on the edge of three deserts, (the Simpson Desert, the Strzelecki Desert and the Sturt Stony Desert) the solitude of silence is just as much a craving as the desire to find the pulsating colour of Australia’s opal, a unique stone forged deep in the earth, remnants of an ancient inland sea. Matrix opal is where the opal occurs as a network of veins or infilling of voids or between grains of the host rock (ferruginous sandstone or ironstone). Matrix comprises precious opaline silica as an infilling of pore spaces in silty claystone or ironstone. Yes we are die hard rock hounds.

Yowah nuts - Found in the far South Western mines at Yowah in Queensland, Yowah nuts are ironstone concretions resembling 'nuts' which contain precious opal in their centre. Upon cracking or slicing the Yowah nut, the precious opal is revealed. Australian opal is the worlds finest with each opal field producing its own unique definable type, a remarkable act of nature. Fossilized wood, snails, shells, pipes and dinosaur bones have also been found through careful hand excavation with opal now replacing the fossils cavities such a thrill to know the original piece was millions of years old. Australian opal is renowned for its vivid colours and is also less likely to shatter or craze due to its low water content. Australian opal is also harder than other forms and represents a very good investment.

And yes we have the itch to go again. AL.B & Laurie C

Gemseek.