Tuesday 30th June - Rubyvale

Tuesday 30^th June

On Tuesday we went to Policeman's nob. (Policeman's Nob is a little old under water volcano but it is not under water anymore). At Policeman's Nob we climbed up the volcano and we also saw lots of rock wallabies. 

These are the rock wallabies. Can you see all five? 

This is me and Caleb putting a rock on the cairn on top of Policeman's Nob.

This is Policeman's Nob. Can you see it through the trees? 

After we went to Policeman's Nob we went panning for sapphire in the creek bed. When we were panning for sapphire we met some German people. The German people had found lots of sapphires, even really big ones. (Sapphires can come in any shape and colour apart from red. The red ones are called rubies.) 

This is a hole that the German people dug. 

This is another hole that the German people dug.

After we went digging for sapphire in the creek bed we went back to the caravan park. At the caravan park we put some of the rocks that we dug up in the willoughby. (A Willoughby is a plastic tub with water in and has a metal ring attached to a pole and you push the pole up and down to make all the sapphires and zircons and maybe even rubies go to the bottom of the sieves). 

This is me using the willoughby.

This is also me using the willoughby.

Mum's note:Policeman's Nob is the basalt plug that remains after the rest of the volcano has eroded away. There is a colony of rock-wallabies (they look like brush-tail wallabies) living on this mound. They are fairly relaxed about human visitors - although they do not like being too close, they simply move around the basalt mound until they feel safe again. Consequently, you can get a great view of the wallabies as you climb to the summit and back.

Who you looking at?! Rock-wallaby on Policeman's Nob.

We didn't find any valuable gems today, but we did have the satisfaction of choosing our own fossicking spot and using our new knowledge to find some small sapphire and zircon pieces without assistance.

Caleb inspecting Mum's dig site, where she did find a couple of really small gems.

Monday 29th June - Rubyvale

Monday 29^th June 

On Monday we went on a tag-along-tour for looking for sapphires. On the tag-along-tour we got to have someone else's wash because it was abandoned in its bucket at the willoughbys and the tour guide said he wanted his bucket back.

This is Dad digging.

This is me separating the wash from the dust and the big rocks.

This is me using the willoughby.

This is me tipping the rubbish rocks away.  

This is us going fossicking with the funny cat again. 

Mum's note:
On the tag-along-tour we found out where the sapphires are in the soil strata (the wash) and how to separate them from the surrounding rock using tumblers and willoughbies. The tumblers separate out all the big rocks and the soil from the size rocks that are likely to include sapphires of worth. The willoughbies are for washing the tumbled rocks and for getting some separation based on density (sapphires are heavy for their size). Isabel has a detailed description of the willoughbies to post tomorrow.

Caleb turning the handle on the tumbler while Dad feeds in wash.

Caleb helping Dad put wash through the willoughby.

We did find one nice size sapphire - a green one. The piece we found has bronzing on one side, making it a star sapphire. It will be difficult to cut to great effect though, as the bronzing is on one of the smaller faces, so for now it will stay rough. 

The colour was too hard to capture, but you can see this rock is letting the light through.
It is a green sapphire - not what we would think of as a sapphire, but apparently very popular in China. 

The bronzing on one edge of our sapphire.

It was hard to make the kids feel that they'd found much in the way of gems today, as the wash was real rather than spiked, so we headed back to MaxiGems for another couple of buckets of tourist wash to finish off the day.
Back at the caravan park we spotted this little guy on the stump outside our van.

Very serene little tree frog.

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.

Saturday 27th June - Rubyvale

Saturday 27^th June

On Saturday we drove from Charters Towers to Emerald but we decided we didn't want to stay there so we drove 45 more minutes to Rubyvale. At Rubyvale we booked 4 nights in a caravan park that looks after brush tail possums and most nights little kangaroo things that look like rats called bettongs.

This is a cotton bush with flowers on.

This is a bettong.

These are the possums.

Mum's note:
On the way to Emerald we saw cotton growing wild on the roadsides and the coal mine at Clermont. We stopped for lunch at a roadhouse and got mobbed for our food by rainbow lorikeets. 

There was a whole flock of them but these two lorikeets were the ringleaders.

"Remember..... I'm a dinosaur....... give me your lunch!"

The big mining bucket at Clermont before getting to Emerald.

At Emerald we saw the "largest painting in the world on an easel", one of a set of seven Van Gogh reproductions planned around the world. We did decide to move onto Rubyvale, although we had planned to stay in Emerald. We had made better time than we expected, so we decided we could stay in the Gemfields instead of 45 minutes away.

The big painting at Emerald.

Friday 26th June - Charters Towers

Friday 26^th June

On Friday we went panning for gold in a river bed with no water which makes it easy and hard because we don't have to swim in the river bed but we don't know how to pan for gold with no water. By the time we we're done we had some gold and we were watching double barred finches.

This is me panning for gold. 

These are double barred finches.

Mum's note:
No, we didn't invent dry-panning for gold.... we actually took water with us and recycled it through the pan to find our three tiny little gold specs and some gold dust. We did this just out of Charters Towers at a public fossicking area called Young's Block. Very satisfying to find your own wild gold, even if a fortune remains elusive! The Double-barred Finches were after our water, and the waste from our panning, presumably because they were after the seeds in it.
Before we went gold hunting, we spent a while in Charters Towers at some of the historical attractions. We visited the Stock Exchange Arcade and saw the Calling of the Card (a presentation of a stock exchange session), the Ambulance museum and the local park where a large colony of flying foxes resides.

The grand Stock Exchange Arcade.

The Calling of the Card presentation.

A very early ambulance - a horse-drawn stretcher.

An ambulance essentially the same as the railway ambulance seen in Cloncurry, except roadworthy.

Flying foxes in Charters Towers.

Thursday 25th June - Charters Towers

Thursday 25^th June

On Thursday we drove to Charters Towers. But on the way we stopped for lunch. From the table we were sitting at the view was very pretty because we could see over the sea to a near by island called Hinchinbrook Island.

This is the pretty view. 

This is me in the bunk bed at the cabin in Charters Towers. 

Mum's note:

Today driving to Charters Towers we saw banana plantations and saw a sugar cane train go past. We also went through Ingham and saw the pub that claims to be “The Pub with No Beer” of Slim Dusty fame. Lunch was at Cardwell. We are now officially on our way home (again).

The Big Crab at Cardwell.

Wednesday 24th June - Green Island

Wednesday 24^th June

On Wednesday we went to Green Island. At Green Island we went to the beach. After the beach we went on a semi-sub.

This is the semi-sub.

In the semi-sub we saw lots of fish, coral and anemones and even a green sea turtle too!

These are some fish we saw in the semi-sub.

Here are some smaller fish we saw in the semi-sub.

After we went on the semi-sub we went on a glass bottom boat in the bottom boat we saw every thing we saw in the semi-sub. After the glass bottom boat we went back to the beach and we had a swim and dad found a shark siting on the sea bed. I learnt that soft corals are not fragile at all but the hard coral is.

These are some fish that we saw in the glass bottom boat.

These are some more fishes we saw in the glass bottom boat.

Here are some more glass bottom boat fish. Can you see them?

This is fish trying to get food.

This is a rainbow we saw on the way to Green Island.

Mum's note:
When Dad went snorkelling he also saw parrotfish eating algae off the coral. While snorkelling, Mum saw a large cone snail heaving its shell along the sand and also a bluespotted stingray gracefully swimming past as if it was flying. On the glass-bottom boat we also saw sea cucumbers, giant clams and burrowing clams.