Thunder eggs

Have started cutting some of the thunder eggs i won at auction. It has been great fun seeing what is inside.

Lovely wins mate! A couple of nice geodes from the cuts, unique colours and banding, some look like fire! There seems to be a couple that look very waxy compared to the rest too. You can never tell what's inside until its open

Thats the best part of cutting rocks AR, the surprise of whats inside. Will try to post pics of the the rest of them if i get them cut tomorrow.

Thundereggs are a real lucky dip I like the one with the crystals in the centre - those crystals are almost black! I still have half a 20 litre drum of little Mount Hay ones, awaiting the day when I splash out and get a proper sized rock saw.

G'day Lefty. The one with the crystals was unexpected. The pocket open up more from the looks of things, but i was hesitant to cut more and loose all the agate.
A mate brought two thunder eggs over for me to cut open from mt Hay for his kids. Had some beautiful quartz crystals and what seemed to be chalcedony with a slight light blue tinge.

Do you keep your eye on gumtree? Have seen a few rock saws on there lately, some with reasonable prices.

Yeah, brand new good-quality lapidary gear is expensive! I'm not very focussed and tend to spread myself right around fossicking and lapidary. Just shelled out for a sandcasting kit (Delftclay casting), still trying to make that work. Worked out keeping the torch burning hot without spluttering, melting the silver quickly and pouring it cleanly out of the crucible, just can't get complete casts yet. I'll crack it yet

The Mount Hay eggs often have light blue banded agate inside but I've also seen lots of crystals and a couple with purple bands inside.

I know what you mean. Between the fossicking, lapidary and geology there is a lot of money needed for tools and equipment. I was really lucky with the 12" and 10" saws i got, which have been a huge help starting out as the club is so far away.

I have not got into the silverworking yet, i hope to pop out in the next week or two to a class and try and figure out what i need to get.

I would love to organize a QLD trip and try to get to Mt Hay and agate creek. One day!

Mount Hay is only a little over an hour's drive for me but my real bucket list place is Agate creek.

Is Agate CK far from Tannum Sands as it sounds like a good place to have a scratch around, I went to Lowmead on the Gladstone show holiday an found a piece of amethyst the size of a 5c piece, the weekend before We went to Riverslea crossing out past Gogango for a look and found some petrified wood and a bit of what we think is amber. I should be cutting rocks by the end of the week I've almost finished making a slab saw it has a 12" blade on it now but I've made it for a 20" saw when I can afford it I've got some petrified wood and conglomerate rock from Chinchilla to cut. I'll get some thunder eggs from MT Hay next time I'm in Rocky, We should catch up some time as I think we are in the same area,

Wooly,

Gday Wooly.

Agate creek is a long way from Tannum Sands, otherwise I would be there every other weekend (I'm at Benaraby) Agate creek is in the Gulf country, in the Forsyth area, a long way to the west of Cairns. A pretty isolated spot but still well worth it judging by the amazing agate that comes from there.

Riverslea crossing has plenty of petrified wood but I've never found any amber. It sounds like you have a piece of orange chalcedony, I've picked up plenty of that at Riverslea over the years, as well as drums of petrified wood. It looks fantastic but only one piece in hundreds seems to have the orange colour running right through, most pieces just have a 1 mm or so thick orange skin that disappears as you start to cab it, turning a drab milky translucent There's still some interesting stuff there though.

I haven't actually been to Mount Hay since I was a kid, the thundereggs I have yet to open were found there by my grandfather and lived in a dusty corner of his shed for decades.

If you're at Tannum or Gladstone or Calliope and you want some petrified wood from Riverslea just let me know, I've got heaps (then again, you probably have too if you've been to Riverslea). I don't have a big enough saw to handle the larger chunks.

Cheers

Can you still get Thundereggs from Mt Hay?..... I heard they closed a few years ago due to the Eggs running out..... Anyone know if this is True? I know the caravan park is still going..... but for the Thundereggs, not sure..... :|

LoneWolf....

It seems so from the website, but you would need to talk to someone who has been there recently i guess.
http://www.aradon.com.au/mt_hay_gemstone_tourist_park.html

LoneWolf said:

Can you still get Thundereggs from Mt Hay?..... I heard they closed a few years ago due to the Eggs running out..... Anyone know if this is True? I know the caravan park is still going..... but for the Thundereggs, not sure..... :|

LoneWolf....

Click to expand...

Pretty sure the eggs on the side of the mountain did run out (or started to run too deep for hand excavation) - but there is another deposit of them on a neighbouring volcanic plug which they transport by excavator to the caravan park site....

Visitors can fossick through piles of thunderegg bearing material which is excavated from the nearby mine site, and transported to a safe area suitable for all ages

Click to expand...

I always have a laugh at the sign every time I drive past, which tells you that you can fossick for "antique rocks" :lol: As opposed to fresh hot lava I guess?

That's what I heard.....Sounds like a trip up to meet Lefty and a fossick at Lowmead then on to Mt Hay..... I have always wanted to go up there for a dig.... for 'Antique Rocks'.....

LoneWolf....

Yep, I'm always keen for a dig Not sure when my next one will be - our brilliant 20-year run with having cars that never have anything go wrong with them has just come to an end. The clutch is about to fall out of the Navara and it's gonna cost me three-and-a-half big ones! 8.( 8.( Hopefully will be back in commission within a fortnight.

Bloody cars!!!!

Yep good when they run..... bad when they don't...... Navara's clutches seem to be a weak link..... My mates has gone on him twice in 12months..... now he has his 3rd one in for about 3 grand..... glad I run a Mitsi..... 8)

LoneWolf....

Must be the newer ones. I had an older model Navara for about 10 years, went halfway round Australia a couple of times without so much as a hiccup. This one has done the same but the clutch is now cactus :/

Yes Lefty my mates is a 2006 model and Nissan replaced the clutch at around 9000km.....Free.... then around the 25000km a vibration stated so back to Nissan... Nothing wrong they say, that's normal..... after writing a letter to their GM things started to get fixed... He told Nissan to shove their warrantee and forked out over $3500 for an aftermarket clutch..... now up to 100,000km and not a problem since..... and a far better product..... Bring back the 'Old' I say...

LoneWolf...

Yeah, I've made it to 160 000 with this one before the problem became noticeable so I guess it did ok compared to a lot of the others. So the problem lies with the genuine Nissan part?

My old mitzy never missed a beat the whole time I had it I traded it last year at 326,000 k's not bad for a petrol,a timing belt at 180,000 and it was still going strong but was getting a bit tired, getting the part is the reasonable expense fitting it is a bit dearer around here,