Our first hint that all was not quite as we would expect a town to be was when we crossed a cattle grid at the edge of town and then saw a sign which told us to be careful of livestock on the roads. In Sapphire, the grids keep the livestock in the town precincts, not out of them. We discovered later that the town has the rights to a Miners Common, created in the 1890s and which covers 11,000 acres of property including Rubyvale (the next town, 6 kms away), that allows miners to mine, build a dwelling and run a few livestock. It is the last of such rights in Queensland, although new regulations do not allow the dwellings on mining claims to be permanent ones, now. We headed, carefully, through the main street
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