Friday
12 July 2019 – 268 099
First
stop today was Policeman’s Knob, believed to be where the volcano that created
the sapphires in the area was centred.
The
Miners Heritage Walk In Sapphire Mine was our second stop today.
We took a tour of the underground sapphire
mine which was closed in the early 2000’s.
I learnt that sapphires come in an amazing variety of colours – in this
area blue, green, yellow and particoloured are most common. The tunnels are tall enough to walk through
and generally do not have supports as they are created in a keystone arch
style, as originally trialled in Roman times.
Prior to machinery, the side tunnels were “tummy tunnels”, arched like
the main tunnels but only high enough to be slithered in and out of. Throughout The Gemfields the depth of the
sapphire bearing alluvial wash varies greatly, from 50cm to 20m plus below the
surface. Most of the commercial gem
mining is done at the greater depths.
We
then had a look at a variety of beautiful jewellery and gemstones in Rubyvale
before enjoying a picnic lunch. This
afternoon we returned to Bobby Dazzler’s to finish washing and sorting
yesterday’s diggings. I found an eleven-carat
particoloured sapphire!
Next
we drove through Sapphire looking at some of the unusual dwelling styles.
We took a walk to the Sapphire Wetlands –
which are currently completely dry. We
also had a drive through Anakie, before heading to Emerald.
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