Sunday 28th June - Rubyvale

Sunday 28^th June

On Sunday we went to church. After church we went fossicking for sapphire in a creek bed but all we found is a piece of glass. After having no luck we bought two $10 buckets with wash in and lots of sapphire in even green. After we did the real fossicking we got to pat a friendly cat.

This is me using the willoughby first time ever. 

This is me looking in the wash for sapphire.

This is the funny cat his name is Mordecai.

These are my sapphires I found.

Mum's note:
Around Sapphire and Rubyvale (communities about 7km apart) is the Rubyvale, Sapphire and Scrub Lead Miners Common. The Common is an area around and in the towns where locals can keep a small number of livestock for a dollar or two per head per year. One cow called Jumpy likes to jump the grid from the Common into the caravan park and eat the citrus trees.

This is Jumpy. She was about to do her "jump the grid" trick for us when the caravan park owner came to find out why we'd stopped our car. Needless to say, she was sprung and sent on her merry way this time.

In the Gemfields there are two types of fossicking land - designated fossicking land where mining claims can be made and machinery is allowed, and fossicking areas where all mining is hand tools only and restricted to holes less than 2m deep. We went for a drive out to the fossicking land around Rubyvale and had a look around. We plan to do a sapphire-finding tour tomorrow anyway, but it was quickly obvious that we have no idea where to start to have a remote hope of finding gems.

Looking around the designated fossicking land.

No permanent dwellings are allowed on the fossicking land around Sapphire and Rubyvale, so this is typical of the buildings outside the town limits. 

Sign says it all really.

Sieving for cats.... found a big one! Yay!
The owner of the cat (and professional tourist miner - ie mines tourists for cash)
from MaxiGems has lived here all his life and spun us some good yarns.