Sapphires !

This road trip was all about exploring Carnarvon National Park and we had no definite plans as to where we would go after that. With such a big country to explore we never retrace our route so after leaving Takarakka Bush Camp and rejoining Carnarvon Way we turned left and headed north with the idea of going to Emerald. [ Were there emeralds in Emerald, I wondered?]

We knew that we were not going far so I let the van amble along peacefully while we reflected on the past five days and then began to wonder what we would do next. Rolleston was a mere 100km along the way and it was there that we refueled the van and then decided to see if the pub there had coffee.  It did. I am unused to pubs but this one felt very odd with the bar person very tense and constantly telling every one, most of whom were travellers like ourselves, that s/he was very stressed and having a really bad day. When we decided to order some food we were told that we should ask the chef if he was willing to take an order, so, after some time I found him in a cupboard in the kitchen and approached him very cautiously with my request. "No Prob!" was the answer. "Ready in fifteen."

Emerald was 140 km from Rolleston and on arrival we called in at the supermarket to replenish our groceries. Our arrival there had my phone going crazy with  a week's worth of messages beeping in, only one of them really important. We then found a great Information Centre where we made the decision not to stay at Emerald but to visit the sapphire mining precinct around Sapphire 53 km further along the way

As we ambled happily along the Capricorn Highway we spotted this intriguing weather event which we calculated was very near to Sapphire. It looked like a waterspout such as those we saw in Montana however we later saw no signs of any precipitation.

Railway station, Anarkie

Forty five km from Emerald we came to the turn off for Sapphire and Rubyvale however instead of turning right I made a left because another sign amused me - ANARKIE ! This remote, still village displayed no signs of anarchy whatsoever although things were probably quite different one hundred years ago when a great many men were fossicking and mining for sapphires ! It had an attractive, but apparently deserted police station, a peaceful school, pub, garden nursery and a few houses. We saw only two people.

Sapphire

Back to the main road we went and across the highway to Sapphire. Apart from the cows that roamed freely between cattle grids the significant features along he way were the remnants of gem mining gear and mounds of earth, sometimes vegetated, sometimes not.

After a quick look around we continued to Rubyvale, a mere 7km down the road where we found a pleasant caravan and camping park, set up camp and enjoyed a quick dinner of pork curry, chick pea curry and salad accompanied of course by a cool chardonnay.

Muggachino's Strudel Hill, Rubyvale

Our adventures next morning were severely curtailed - It was a Sunday and everything except for the few gemstone shops was firmly shut! All we could do was to look at all the polished sapphires in one of the shops and what a joy it was to see sapphires of all colours. They were so pretty! I do have quite a collection of sapphires however they are all blue and, although I admired the pink, purple and yellow shining stones, I resisted the temptation to acquire any more feeling that I really had no need for more material items.

After drooling over the big range of these colourful gemstones we were in need of a coffee and remembered the newly opened cafe which had been recommended to us by the Emerald Information Centre volunteers. We found it on Keilambete Road behind another gem shop and thankfully, it was open. What a cute place it was! The lady left the gem shop [unsecured, I noticed] and came to the back courtyard to brew fresh coffee and to serve us apple strudel and freshly baked scones. She then stayed to have a chat with us about local sapphires as well as sapphires they get from other countries, including Sri Lanka.

Fortified we then decided to take a drive around the gem fields and this is what we saw . . .

Final process of sapphire mining - getting the sapphires from the wash

lots of them and rusty bits of mining equipment lying about. The notices warned us off! 

So, Sunday was a day of enforced rest. Watched by our kookaburra, we finished it off with kangaroo stew, rice, beans, carrots and a glass or two of red wine.

Kookaburra

Monday morning saw us with our repacked van waiting for the Rubyvale Miners Heritage mine tour  to begin.  Not that deep below us was the bed of a seriously ancient river which had carried volcanic material along it. This volcanic matter included the precious sapphires that, in the late 1890s and early 1900s had hundreds of men rush to the area in search of wealth.  Stories remain of many who had lucky finds several times over, only to squander the efforts of their underground toil on drink, gambling and women.

Shafts are dug out first as they provide the vital air source and also an outlet for the wash which has to be rocked, rolled, smashed washed and sieved to catch the hidden sapphires. These shafts go down only until they hit granite beds - the line of wash sits on top of these beds. 

At the bottom of the steps we stopped to learn that we were in "Monkey Drive" the tunnel section of this mine which was dug by hand shovel around 1906. It had been worked then by two men, one worked underground while his partner winched the buckets of wash up to the top and also kept a look out to check that the man underground was safe. The underground toiler would really need to be able to trust his partner on the top, I thought.

Underground tunnel, Sapphire mine at Rubyvale

The tunnels were wide enough to allow two people to pass and tall enough to stand upright. Apparently if they were any wider it would have been necessary to shore them up. It was quite warm underground with the year round temperature varying  between 21 - 23C,

There's a couple of sapphires in them rocks!

The present company worked this mine in 1982 and opened the tour a few years later after moving their active mining a little further along the property.

Looking up the mine shaft

There are three types of mining licences: fossicking, hand mining and machine mining. For a small fee, anyone can do fossicking which is finding gems in riverbeds, land on a more casual basis. Nowadays many regard it as a fun thing to do for recreation. Hand mining involves the use of jack hammers and winches which are used by the hand in contrast to machine mining during which machines are used. There is no machine mining in this area.

Hand mining - jack hammer

Here's Fred an old time miner! The final stage of sieving and washing  the wash to pick up the sapphires was done above ground though.

The ladder below was one used a hundred years ago.

Once the tour was finished we again browsed the shop and succumbed to the temptation, buying a couple of necklaces for our daughters.

Then we were on the road again, retracing our path as far as Emerald, heading to Emu Park on the coast.