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Published: August 15th 2014
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Just Go Around
The cattle wander all over the town, a very large Miners Common, often getting in the way of traffic which just manoeuvres around them 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 until we found the Free 48 hour Camping Area, right behind the small, closed, swimming pool. It was very dry and dusty and much of it was on a hill but we managed to find a flat spot and set up. Almost immediately, a young steer came running through the camp, past our van, and through a group of Guinea Fowl, that also occupy
A Box of Colourful Sapphires
This lovely display case was in McArthur's Sapphire Shop and shows the tremendous variety of colours that sapphire is found in,not just dark blue. the area. I then went to find the toilets to see if there was a shower there. They were located in a small building completely surrounded by a fence and with a latched gate (no shower, though). The Dump Point was also inside the fence.
After getting settled, we went for an exploratory drive around the town and started to notice that every building had fences, gates and/or a small cattle grid at their entrance. In this town the livestock has the run of the place and the people are barricaded in! Cattle wandered, willy nilly, over the roads and left piles of dung everywhere they went. We saw one group cross the main road in order to feast on the bushes hanging over one of the gardens. No doubt they would have gone into it had there been no good strong fence surrounding the garden! The group spread across the road, stopping traffic, with some of the young ones getting skittish as cars passed on the other side of them and changing course unexpectedly. They had no road sense whatsoever!
We drove a way out of town, into the mining areas, and saw the effect the no-permanent-dwelling
The Zircon Worth a Cool $37,500
This huge gem, a natural zircon (NOT a man-made cubic zirconia) is very valuable because of its size and the unusual rich red, brown colour. It was found locally 15 years ago and is still waiting for a buyer. rules had on the homes – they were all either caravans with awnings or sort of steel sheds (humpies) that look as if they’ve been made from scrap. Of course, they also have lots of mining equipment, with various stages of rust, and often rusty old vehicles lying around, too.
Back in town, we went into McArthur’s Sapphire Shop to see what was on offer and got into conversation with the owner, who was very informative and friendly. Most of the stock is found in their own mine, which is 24 feet deep. They send all the small stones to Thailand to be cut, though, as it only costs $3 per carat whereas it costs $45 a carat for cutting here. The Thai cutters are not so accurate so big stones are done in Sapphire by local cutters. She said they have to be very exact when telling the Thai people what they shapes they want or they get back all pear shaped stones!
We were very surprised at the fantastic variety of bright colours that sapphire can be found in, ranging from the usual blues, through greens, yellows, oranges, pinks, browns, white and even reds. It turns
The Sapphire Brag Board
This was outside the Sapphire Traders Post shop and shows all the finds of large sapphires recently and which sapphire fields they were found in. out that the stone everyone calls a ruby is actually a red sapphire! There were also some lovely zircons, (natural gemstones – not to be confused with the fake diamonds called cubic zirconias, which are man-made) including a huge, beautiful, rich coloured brown and red one that changed colour to green as you moved. The owner had asked her to sell it for him 15 years ago but no-one has wanted it in all that time, maybe because of the price tag of $37,500!
There was one other kind of sapphire she showed us, that looks like an ordinary hexagonal rock but with star shaped fault lines in it when uncut. It cannot be faceted because of those flaws but when it is made into a cabochon, i.e. it has a convex shape, it shows a glittering star shape when in the light. I’d never heard of that before.
After our fascinating glimpse into the world of sapphires in Sapphire, we were ready for dinner. We stopped at Sapphire Traders Post, the local supermarket (and gift shop, mining supplies, recharge point for fuel and gas, take-away and cafe) for some milk and bread. Outside the store there was
Fish and Chips Sapphire Style
This quirky dining corner was inside the Sapphire Traders Post, which was a supermarket, gift shop and cafe all rolled into one. We were sitting in a little corral to eat our meal and it had a couple of kangaroo pelts hanging on the fence. The meal was delicious! a “Brag Board” where people can chalk up their finds and where they came from. It was fun to read and I’m sure it will encourage more people to start digging.
The food cooking inside smelled wonderful and we noticed that they were cooking, among other things, battered Barramundi for $6 a piece. We couldn’t resist, and as we were in an unpowered site, we decided to eat in the cafe section of the store and save our house batteries. We ordered the fish and some chips each and sat in a little wooden corral with small round cafe tables in it and a kangaroo pelt hanging on the outer “fence”. It looked so rustic and unusual we asked the lady to take a picture of us when she came with our food. The meal was delicious and I had double the chips I could eat so I put some of them in the paper cutlery bag to take home and reheat tomorrow. Barry, of course, ate all his!
It was a delightful way to finish a strange and wonderful day.
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