Really?
If you turn north off the Capricorn Highway 42 kilometres west of Emerald in Central Queensland and drive about another 20 kilometres you come to the small towns of Sapphire and Rubyvale in the Sapphire Gem fields. There are also a couple of fields to the south of the highway. As the name implies, the 900 square kilometres area contains one of the largest and best quality sapphire fields in the world.
Like other gem mining towns in Australia, these gem fields and their towns are quite quirky (if you have been there, not dissimilar to Lightning Ridge and Coober Pedy. You can take a mine tour, do fossicking yourself, tour the area by bike or car and see its other attractions or buy yourself a nice sapphire or jewellery.
Discovered in the 1870's, for about 100 years Australia supplied 80% of the world's sapphires. Since the 1980's an active tourist industry has developed and the towns are fully services with all amenities. Strangely, they are also very welcoming and friendly.
The "Pride of Queensland" is the largest cut yellow sapphire in the world and at 169 carats is owned privately in the USA. A large Blue Black sapphire known as the "Black Star of Queensland" was recently offered for sale at $90 million - the gem was found by a 12 year old boy in 1938 and the palm sized stone weighed an incredible 1156 carats and spent the next 9 years languishing as a doorstop at a nearby home!
Also well known are four very large and special sapphires carved as American President's heads and weighing more than 1700 carats each! These are on display at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, USA.
Frustratingly, when we arrived in the Gemfields, it was pouring rain leading to flooding so after a quick look around we continued on to Emerald.
Really?
If you turn north off the Capricorn Highway 42 kilometres west of Emerald in Central Queensland and drive about another 20 kilometres you come to the small towns of Sapphire and Rubyvale in the Sapphire Gem fields. There are also a couple of fields to the south of the highway. As the name implies, the 900 square kilometres area contains one of the largest and best quality sapphire fields in the world.
Like other gem mining towns in Australia, these gem fields and their towns are quite quirky (if you have been there, not dissimilar to Lightning Ridge and Coober Pedy. You can take a mine tour, do fossicking yourself, tour the area by bike or car and see its other attractions or buy yourself a nice sapphire or jewellery.
Discovered in the 1870's, for about 100 years Australia supplied 80% of the world's sapphires. Since the 1980's an active tourist industry has developed and the towns are fully services with all amenities. Strangely, they are also very welcoming and friendly.
The "Pride of Queensland" is the largest cut yellow sapphire in the world and at 169 carats is owned privately in the USA. A large Blue Black sapphire known as the "Black Star of Queensland" was recently offered for sale at $90 million - the gem was found by a 12 year old boy in 1938 and the palm sized stone weighed an incredible 1156 carats and spent the next 9 years languishing as a doorstop at a nearby home!
Also well known are four very large and special sapphires carved as American President's heads and weighing more than 1700 carats each! These are on display at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, USA.
Frustratingly, when we arrived in the Gemfields, it was pouring rain leading to flooding so after a quick look around we continued on to Emerald.