Fossicking around the Inverell and Glen Innes areas

[bigfella]

Good morning fellow members. In the next couple of weeks my wife and I intend spending sometime fossicking for gemstones/gold in the New England area. Being new to this part of the country your assistance in advising us of the best places to stay and the most productive areas and any other information you can provide, especially relating to the use of small 12v powered sluices, metal detectors, would be greatly appreciated. We have a fully self contained caravan and would consider accommodation suited to that style of camping in addition to caravan parks etc.

Cheers

Bigfella

 

[Diggerdude]

Uralla is a good spot. Gold, sapphires , diamonds and topaz all found in rocky river. There is a free camping/fossicking area just out of town by the river with long drop toilets, taps etc. Plenty of room there.
You can use your 12v sluice there aswell.

Goodluck and give us a yell if you need any more info about that area.

DD

 

[Jamo]

Bigfella

Inverell Tourist Info Centre has all the good oil on free and paid digs. They also sell bags of wash. Make sure you pop in there as it also has an awesome gem display.

If you don't mind bush camping you can stay at '7 Oaks' a paid sapphire dig. So you can fossick and camp at the same location.

Good luck

 

[bisho]

look up "seven oaks " at Inverell you can camp there and fossick for saphires

 

[bigfella]

Thanks guys for your info; much appreciated. I'm off to Inverell/Glen Innnes and surrounding areas so your comments have been invaluable.

 

[Heatho]

I'm planning a trip up to Inverell mid November, my friend has family at Armidale and Inverell she has'nt seen in quite a while. Will be keen to check out Uralla for a day or 2 and Inverell-Glen Innes region for about 4 days looking for Sapphires and anything else that sparkles.

If anyone has done a recent trip up there and had good results it would be great to hear from you either in this thread or via PM on places to try. We will be staying in motels, no camping this trip.

Anyway I'm really looking forward to it and hoping to get a few nice cutters also.

I like gem pics too so..... if you have any from the region post em up please.

 

[bisho]

ive been to 7 oaks just out of Inverell and got saphires there. you do have to pay to do it but at least you'll get something

 

[Heatho]

Thanks Bisho, yeah I'm happy to pay for access no worries.

 

[Rastys 1964]

Heatho,
Give the Glenn Innes Tourist Info centre a call. They are really helpful and will put you in touch with a number of places that allow you to fossick on their land for a fee. I went out to Swamp Oak a couple of years ago and the missus found a 24 carat dog tooth when she snuck off into the bush for a nature call. I found a couple of bombs over 30 carat and this was just in one afternoon.

 

[Heatho]

Thanks Rastys, will do.

 

[bisho]

you can also go out to Tingha to the sand quarry and look for grass stones, apparently the only other spot in the world to find them is in south africa

 

[benny1]

great info

 

[Jamo]

There is weekly fossicking trips out at Glenn Innes every Friday. Touch base with the Tourist Info Centre at GI and they will be able to put you in touch with the tour leader. Cheers

 

[Heatho]

Cheers Bisho, Grass Stone sounds interesting.

Thanks Jamo that's a top idea.

 

[boobook]

About 20km. out of Glen Innes is Bullock Mountain, a property on Reddestone creek and the Beardy river.
Owned by Steve and Alison Wood they have a nom. charge for fossicking in the creek with some good stones found there.
On the site of an old commercial sapphire mine there is still a lot of virgin ground, some of the best stones coming from a cemented wash which whilst taking a bit of digging into then breaks down in the seives.
Some nice zircon also there with plenty of spinel (blackjack).
In the old mine excavations in the creek are some whopping redfin, yellowbelly and cod (catch and release only) in the actual river. Great camp spots also. You do need a 4wd to get to it though.
They are very good friends of ours and great people to know. Steve, Alison or Jo can be contacted on 02 67321599
Mike

 

[Heatho]

Mike, thank you very much. I will be sure to call them and get out there for a dig, sounds great.

 

[boobook]

Heatho.
Should have mentioned Steve has pretty reasonable accommodation out there as well.
Just mention my name when you speak with them, they will look after you pretty well.
Mike

 

[Heatho]

Thanks again, will mention you for sure.

 

[Heatho]

We stayed in Armidale for 2 nights. I spent a few hours yesterday at Uralla having a dig and a sluice, ran quite a bit through for not much of a result, had a quick pan of some of the cons and there were a few specks but nothing to get excited about. There were a lot of small very Red Garnets in the cons, no Sapphires.

Had a dig at Nullamanna fossicking area today for a couple of hours and found 1 sapphire, pretty poor quality though, found it in the first 5 mins and was hoping for a few more which never came. It was warm, it's dry as hell and the water was festy and a bit rank, no flow at all. Off to check out Billabong Blue Sapphire park tomorrow morning. Hopefully will get a few there.

 

[Ben78]

Hey Heatho, what did you make of the Mica at Uralla?