ok so on our travels around the place i guess most of us like collecting things from places we've been and may pick up the odd shell and such when we're out wondering the country side,, but does anyone collect or look for gems and minerals and precious stones, or maybe even do the odd bit of gold detecting,,, i'd like to start to look for gems and such on our trip and am open to any advice any "prospector" might have, eg good places to look,, i know when my mum and dad were alive she collected gems and"stones" from all their travel, sadly i don't have any they all seem to have been lost in time,, i have heard of a place in queensland where you can "mine" for thunder eggs and when they are cut they have the most beautfull patterns inside, when i FNQ last year we wne to a place in Atherton and bought some geodes and had them cut open and they were nice too but i'd like to go out and find my own gems and such,, any thoughts
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SOMETIMES YA JUST GOTTA TAKE YOUR COLTHES OFF AND ROLL IN THE MUD
I have no firsthand knowledge of fossiking but I can tell you some friends have just returned from the Anakie gemfields and have around 100 gem quality finds for two weeks prospecting.
One of which they reckon is around the three to four thousand dollar mark once cut and polished.
They have said that with all the rain over the last six months it has washed lots of the gems free of the dirt making it easier to find them.
I think you have to have eyes like eagles though.They were picking over the wash on Sunday and picked out 20-30 stones and to be honest I would not have known that they were gems.
I am sure there are others who will respond and give you firsthand knowledge.
AWWWWW Father Ted.. Thank you,but I've probably been called worse things.LOL. Now Ma...Had you said an OLD fossicker, that would be different. LOL. Seriously BB, We do love looking for gems, and have just returned from Sapphire in Qld, west of Emerald. I think the thunder eggs area you are talking about is possibly Mt Hay, west of Rockhampton. Would be glad to talk to you and help in any way possible. As Ma said ..send me a pm and I will call you. It's a wonderful hobby and only hard work if you make it that way. Cheers Dellie
Hi Delliemay,glad to see that you have a sense of humour.Happy Fossicking.Gold panning near Bathurst was my try at striking the elusive yellow good stuff.Great fun,but fruitless on that occasion.Made me appreciate Bundy at night time though,bloody cold spot.
If your ever in Lightning Ridge go out to the Gruin????? opal fields and fosick in the dump. Lots of people make a lot of money out of that. Also in Sapphire you can buy a bag of stones and they show you how to sort them. We found Armfest the best. You wont get rich but you will find some good stones to send to Thialand to be cut. Have fun
ok so on our travels around the place i guess most of us like collecting things from places we've been and may pick up the odd shell and such when we're out wondering the country side,, but does anyone collect or look for gems and minerals and precious stones, or maybe even do the odd bit of gold detecting,,, i'd like to start to look for gems and such on our trip and am open to any advice any "prospector" might have, eg good places to look,, i know when my mum and dad were alive she collected gems and"stones" from all their travel, sadly i don't have any they all seem to have been lost in time,, i have heard of a place in queensland where you can "mine" for thunder eggs and when they are cut they have the most beautfull patterns inside, when i FNQ last year we wne to a place in Atherton and bought some geodes and had them cut open and they were nice too but i'd like to go out and find my own gems and such,, any thoughts
Hi BB, there are thousands of places where you can fossick scattered around this country,all of the well known places that are gazeted in most of the gem books are a good place to start and through them you will meet people who will put you onto some of the not so well known places. I mined sapphires at the Anakie Fields for eleven years and from the people that i met there i have found, Topaz, Smoky quartz, clear quartz, tin, thunder eggs, Garnets of very good quality, gold and a whole lot of other gems and minerals.
What really suprised me was all of the places in both, QLD and N S W that you can go to and fossick in that are not gazeted and are not really known by a lot of people. One place we went to we even found a very small diamond and just about every mineral known to man, that one i will keep quiet about though. The main thing that i found was to keep maps, mark everything on your maps, locations and minerals found there, you would be suprised at how quick you can forget when you have a lot of locations. Cheer's for now, Rob.
NeilandRaine are right about Lightrning Ridge, BB. We were planning to go there before we ended up at Sapphire. The field I think they are refering to is "Grawin", a little south west of the Ridge itself...The reason we didn't go is because the road to Grawin is still cut off from the floods. We do the fossicking "ferriting" thing there on the dump sites and have a ball. Can find some beautiful opal there without working hard....free camp behind "The Pub in the Scrub", and need I say..meet some wonderful people. Where ever you go..enjoy the journey and not just the destination. Cheers Dellie
Beachball57, if you type 'Fossicking Areas' in the search box on the Google page, you'll get a drop-down box with links to most States. It's usually pretty easy to find out where the Public Fossicking Areas are, and you can find out about the Guide-lines for each State too.
Cheers,
Sheba.
-- Edited by Sheba on Wednesday 27th of July 2011 11:47:14 PM
hi guys we went to mt hay and fossicked for thunder eggs, it was really great. they cut a couple for you, it was amazing the patterns inside, then a friend who makes jewellry polished them and made a pedant out of one of them for me. always wanted to fossick so it was a great introduction to it, hubby thought we would only be there for an hour but 3 hours later we left with our bounty of rocks. so i'm hoocked and plan to do lots more. lyn
One stone regardless of size costs about $20 to get cut in Australia. If you can get someone to cut them. We found one about 1.2 carrats(spell check) it was worth about $200 and worth paying the $20 to get cut at Sapphire.
Most of the stones you find ( you will find lots),are very small and it takes 10 or more to make up a carret, to get them all cut it costs $20 in Thialand. The people who run the places like Armfest will advise you send them to Thialand and give you the address
Having said all that if you find some big stones it is worth getting them polished or cut in Sapphire.
I wonder if sooner or later the stone cutters in Australia will come to realise that they are doing themselves out of a job and money when they charge too much so people send their stones overseas.
This just doesn't apply to stones etc., it covers a wide gamut of things I reckon
Some nice stones there N & R.
I came by some really nice Matrix opals from a bloke in Blackall. Probably not worth all that much but I liked them.
-- Edited by Ma on Wednesday 27th of July 2011 08:18:46 AM
One stone regardless of size costs about $20 to get cut in Australia. If you can get someone to cut them. We found one about 1.2 carrats(spell check) it was worth about $200 and worth paying the $20 to get cut at Sapphire.
Most of the stones you find ( you will find lots),are very small and it takes 10 or more to make up a carret, to get them all cut it costs $20 in Thialand. The people who run the places like Armfest will advise you send them to Thialand and give you the address
Having said all that if you find some big stones it is worth getting them polished or cut in Sapphire.
Spell check - it is spelt carat. Es
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Esmeralda
It aint over until the fat lady sings, and I dont feel like singing just yet!
One stone regardless of size costs about $20 to get cut in Australia. If you can get someone to cut them. We found one about 1.2 carrats(spell check) it was worth about $200 and worth paying the $20 to get cut at Sapphire.
Most of the stones you find ( you will find lots),are very small and it takes 10 or more to make up a carret, to get them all cut it costs $20 in Thialand. The people who run the places like Armfest will advise you send them to Thialand and give you the address
Having said all that if you find some big stones it is worth getting them polished or cut in Sapphire.
ok so on our travels around the place i guess most of us like collecting things from places we've been and may pick up the odd shell and such when we're out wondering the country side,, but does anyone collect or look for gems and minerals and precious stones, or maybe even do the odd bit of gold detecting,,, i'd like to start to look for gems and such on our trip and am open to any advice any "prospector" might have, eg good places to look,, i know when my mum and dad were alive she collected gems and"stones" from all their travel, sadly i don't have any they all seem to have been lost in time,, i have heard of a place in queensland where you can "mine" for thunder eggs and when they are cut they have the most beautfull patterns inside, when i FNQ last year we wne to a place in Atherton and bought some geodes and had them cut open and they were nice too but i'd like to go out and find my own gems and such,, any thoughts 
