Rubyvale/Sapphire

From the name of this post you might guess what happens in this area!!!  However, apparently, Rubies are very uncommon in Rubyvale – but lots of other gems are found here.

After getting the car sorted in Emerald I tracked out to Rubyvale and did not much else that day (it was late when I got there). Next day I walked around town & looked at a LOT of really nice jewellry – mostly made from locally mined/found gems.  There was some really nice stuff here. I then walked out of town to the Miner’s Heritage museum – a once working mine/tunnel where they had been getting gems until fairly recently. When they ran out they turned it into a tourist park – I did a tour of the mine – not as closed in or scary as the silver mine at Silverton – but still quite interesting to see the layers of the earth and work out where the goodies are likely to be found.  Mind you – they did show us the “Tummy Tunnels” (I think that’s what they were called) that they used to use – a man would crawl in on this tummy – dig the earth into a hessian bag in front of him and then crawl backwards out to the mine shaft – the tunnels were just big enough for a man to crawl in – on his tummy – not on his hands & knees. It made me feel stuck just looking at it – so I don’t know how they handled it. Yuck – it would be  hard way to earn a pound.

I went back to the van park & sparked up the Cobb Cooker for the first time – and cooked myself a roast dinner. It worked quite well & the dinner was lovely – so I’ll have to be using it a lot more often from now on.

Next morning I went to Sapphire and to “Pat’s Gem” – which a lot of people talk about – and bought a bucket of wash & was shown how to clean & sort it & looked for gems. You take a bucket of mud (pretty much), sift as much loose soil off as you can, then put it in the water trough & swirl it around (whilst freezing you hands off!!). Then, when the dirt is all washed off you’re supposed to swirl it around so all the rocky bits that are left form a mound in the middle. Then you take that over to your sorting table & flip the sieve over & the gems (being heavier than most other stuff) should be sitting there on top waiting for you to pick them up!!!! Just like that. They gave me a quick run down on what was a gem & what was silica/useless/worthless stuff – but I’m not 100% sure that I didn’t throw away my fortune!!   I did find about 8-10 sapphires of about match head size – absolutely good for nothing – but they are MY absolutely good for nothing sapphires now!!!  Apparently a sapphire will be cut down to about 1/4 of its size to be cut & polished – so you need something a bit substantial to start with.  One couple who were also doing a bucket of wash came up with one stone that was big enough – but I think only just. They say people do get them – but I don’t think very often. I’m sure they haven’t been through the wash dirt before – but I’d think they wouldn’t be letting amateurs at it if the experts thought they may actually get some really big ones from it. Mind you – I paid $10 for the bucket of wash – so maybe its more profitable to sell it that way than try to find jewels yourself – and if not, at least it would be a good sideline I think.

Rubyvale & Sapphire are towns in a paddock. All the properties have gates and grids – you had to go over a grid to get into the caravan park – as the paddocks all have cattle in them – strange & funny to be walking down the street & dodging cow pats!!  Just something different again.

Town Cows

The other major thing I noted with these towns was the lack of apparent money. There are a couple of commercial mines out there & a lot of shops & a  lot of fossickers and people mining the gems – so there must be people MAKING money there – but they sure aren’t SPENDING any there. It was a stark constrast to Charters Towers – which took its wealth & showed it all off. It seems to be a big difference between gem miners/fossickers and gold miners – gem miners seem to keep there money (and maybe their gems) close to hand.  Actually, the fellow who took us down the mine said something along the lines of he had been mining nearby for almost 10 years (in a deep shaft – up & down ladders & whilst not all by hand – a lot of hard work) and I think he said he still has ALL the gems he’s dug up.  (He was working at the Miners Heritage thing – so maybe that’s how he supported himself???) So, its a different way of life – and not how I’d do it – I’d be spending it faster than I could find it!!!

After making my BIG finds at Pat’s Gems, I left the gem fields and I did have to go back to Emerald to go to Springsure – but only just – I turned toward the lake/dam just as I came into town – so I wasn’t forced to go back into Emerald – which was a good thing as they were having a craft fair & that may have way laid me for a while!!!

The Dam/Lake (Fairburn Dam/Lake Maraboon) just out from Emerald was really lovely – the dam is quite big – and I couldn’t work out where it stopped being a dam & the lake began – but it looked good.  Stopped & had lunch and was once again approached by lots of birds – but I fought them off and managed to eat my lunch before they got at it – cheeky things.

From there, it wasn’t too  long a drive to Springsure – and there was another way so I didn’t go back through Emerald!!

Rubyvale Caravan Park – nights of 20 & 21 July, 2011