Gemstone fossicking in Vic

Prospecting Australia

Help Support Prospecting Australia:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Kitangel

Stephanie Munroe
Joined
Apr 27, 2013
Messages
27
Reaction score
3
Hey there everyone,

As a new but very excited fossicker, I'm eager to get out there and find me some gems!

Only thing is I'm not very familiar with different sites around Vic to conduct said fossicking. I know of Beechworth, Mooralla and Mortlake, but the rest are a bit hazy. I've heard Powelltown mentioned, but has anyone got any other little areas I can take a nosy down to and see what I can find? (If I find anything, because I'm still very green). I'm a little bit hampered by toddlers, so anything in about the 3 hr or uner time to get there from Geelong is much, muh appreciated.

Thanks, and I'm sorry for barging in here!

Cheers,
Stephanie
 
G'day,Stephanie,

The best publication I've seen is " Gem Minerals of Victoria " and you can get it from Mineralogical Society of Victoria. Just google them up if you want a copy. The publication is pretty comprehensive and pretty well all the locations are there. Got some great pics in it too....Hope this helps. Cheers Wal. :)
 
hi Stephanie and welcome to the forum I am a vic fossicker I also am the field trip officer for diamond valley gem club we go to quit a few gem locs in vic to find red jasper and black, fossils shells, trilobites, gold, Smokey quartz, tourmaline, topaz, sapphires and zircons, olivine, chert, calcite, chloride crystals, and more and as a club I lead my club to find these gems where going to a fossil spot soon too up at clobinane vic to find fossils shells on the 1st and 2th of June meeting at 10am at Andersons garden pm me if you would like to come along and ill give you a map

cheers simeon hunt :D
 
Thanks WalnLiz, I'll get on that now :)

Hunting the Yellow, PMing you :) Thanks!
 
yellow and gems in Daylesford area, plenty of dried out creeks that you can find a small puddle in, my mate nick has picked up at least 20 rubies and gems in the last week. Very kid friendly daylesford
 
1368326847_rubies.jpg


few me and missus got yesterday too many in the pan to pull out, hope to find some bigger ones soon
 
G0lddigg@ said:
yellow and gems in Daylesford area, plenty of dried out creeks that you can find a small puddle in, my mate nick has picked up at least 20 rubies and gems in the last week. Very kid friendly daylesford

Unfortunately they won't be "Rubies" ...Rubies are red Gem quality Corundum (Sapphires) and are extremely rare in Australia. What you mainly have down there are red zircons and garnets, and they cut and polish into some fine stones.....Cheers Wal. ;)
 
WalnLiz said:
G0lddigg@ said:
yellow and gems in Daylesford area, plenty of dried out creeks that you can find a small puddle in, my mate nick has picked up at least 20 rubies and gems in the last week. Very kid friendly daylesford

Unfortunately they won't be "Rubies" ...Rubies are red Gem quality Corundum (Sapphires) and are extremely rare in Australia. What you mainly have down there are red zircons and garnets, and they cut and polish into some fine stones.....Cheers Wal. ;)

true? I was told by quite a few different people from there that they were rubies 8.( mud on my face, there are three really dark ones which i was sure were rubies.
There are also little blue ones, and a friend of mine has two emeralds now thinking they must be demantoid.

oh well they are beautiful all the same although probably not as keen to pick the other 100+ very small ones out of my cons now :) still i ahve to wopnder if the clear ones are in fact diamonds or garnets now as apparently quite a few were found here before lake daylesford was flouded and possibly after the floody some of them gems might have moved through the creek system :)
 
Hey Stephanie,

My wife picked up a book off fleabay called "Gemstones of Victoria" by Derrick Stone, published back in 1967 by Jacaranda Press.

It lists the following gem fields near Geelong and what can be found in them.

Blackwood-Trentham: Black Gins (Plenaste), blue and green sapphires, limonite, red zircons, quartz.
Ballarat: Amethyst, garnet, citrine, sapphire, coloured quartz, topaz, emerald, zircon.
Daylesford: Agates, sapphire, garnets, quartz crystal, rubies, zircon

Shoot me a PM if you want the names of some of the rivers/creeks where these can be found.
 
Have your "Rubies" tested...they are extremely rare amongst the sapphire world and "True" rubies are scarcer than hens teeth. I have chased these little blighters all over the country and in 50 years hunting sapphires have got a grand total of "Six" authentic rubies. The ratio is something like 1 ruby to 1 million sapphires.....but keep your hopes up ..they are out there...just not by the sieve full. Cheers Wal. :)
 
will do mate any tricks to to share? panning these is killing me so slow .... :eek:

WalnLiz said:
Have your "Rubies" tested...they are extremely rare amongst the sapphire world and "True" rubies are scarcer than hens teeth. I have chased these little blighters all over the country and in 50 years hunting sapphires have got a grand total of "Six" authentic rubies. The ratio is something like 1 ruby to 1 million sapphires.....but keep your hopes up ..they are out there...just not by the sieve full. Cheers Wal. :)
 
Easiest way is to sieve them down to 1/16'' sieve and chuck what goes through that out as it has no value. Up here we chuck out anything that goes through the 1/8" sieve as they're too small to facet....Cheers Wal. :)
 
If you can get your hands on a UV light(ebay has some cheapies). Rubies will show up bright red when illuminated by it. Some zircons and diamonds will show up yellow. I dont have a lot of time but, seeing you're from Ballarat(about 30mins from where I live) I could give you a lesson on sieving if you like? That goes for anyone else about this neck of the woods ;) .
 
awesome ordered two different ones off fleabay, one with a magnifier and one for shining on the creek at night :) would that work?

Thanks for the offer on seiving i think ive got that covered ive got a 1/4, 1/8 and something inbetween made from plastic that works quite well. I like the idea of camping and having a night session with UV :p
 
Looking good, thanks :) AU fever, I'll shoot you a PM if you don't mind, cheers muchly for that list :)
WalnLiz, I had no idea they were that rare :eek: finding one of those must be a joy :)
R G, I'd love to grab some pointers, I'll buy the sieves first though. Thank you for the offer!
And what a gorgeous collection of stones! On the lookout for some biggies?
 

Latest posts

Top