Any Info on Robertson NSW

Hi guys,

Ive read and heard of people finding small sapphires in creeks around Robertson NSW and was hoping maybe some people who have knowledge about this area could shed some light on the subject.
I have heard from a couple of older guys I know that you used to be able to get them from some of the rivers around carrington tops but all the research ive done on the area has once again led me to a dead end.
After reading the DPI Industrial Mineral Opportunities report the have a map of NSW showing the localities where sapphires are present but do not list the actual locations on the map they are simply represented by small blue diamonds.
I am hoping some of the sites are accessible as I am from wollongong and would love to be able to fossick for some specimens without traveling too far.
If anyone has any information on these locations please feel free to share that info

Thank you all.
Matt

hi matt I think Robertson is locked up I have heard you can find sapphires in Berrima river there are good places but most have been locked up for water catchment or for fishing good trout I have heard of good places from my dad and others who found good gold and gems but you can no longer go to these places let a lone panning if they catch you in there you will get in trouble not sure on Robertson if it is locked up have only found old reports of gold and sapphires found there a long time a go but not much more I have heard tales of one river near Robertson where you can find sapphires because it has not been touched been locked up in national park since the place was first discovered I hope this helps

Thanks for that info mate.
Any chance you have links to the old reports you have read on the area?

no very hard to find I think it was womens day article if I remember right most places do not have reports on line for some reason the history has been erased most likely so people do not find out where you can find things

Hi Matty,

I've been out to Robertson and the Wingecarribee River on 4-5 occasions in the last 4 months with no luck other than a few small zircons and no visible spinel or heavier stones in the sieve.
I'm sure I have read the same literature that you stated above as well as visiting the Sydney Museum which have more detailed maps of the area, information I found led me to believe there should be some blue stones there and hence the reason I went back so many times to come up empty handed.

A point of interest was Southey's Mine which is located near Robertson, however is not accessible anymore, signage around that area stating $11000 trespass fine!!
Not my cup of tea..
Yesterday my wife Jo and I went out to Kangaroo Valley River's upper reaches to further investigate the so called "blue" sightings that I read may have washed over the Fitzroy Falls area however found only petrified wood and other stones of no interest. We searched around Mt Alexander and "the Gib" which was apparently a volcanic precinct back in the day to no avail.

Matty, good luck with future searches in the area, I hope I haven't disheartened you regarding this region - would love for you to report a find around there.

I'll stick to GG for now, we never come home empty handed, thanks Wal and G'day C & L from Tim & Jo.

Hi aldo,
Thanks for that info mate. I havn't been disheartened yet lol I'll keep searching for the elusive blue in the area and let you all know what comes of it.
The mine does seem like a good place to start, I wonder if its possible to get permission to go on the land.will have to find out.
I havn't been out to GG yet, will probably make a trip out there in a couple of weeks to try my luck.

Ahh richo I have the article your talking about on my laptop. It had a large list of locations in nsw where different minerals and stones occur.
It didn't give any more info than that unfortunatley.

I have been searching for years and found very little but my dad told me about the different sites he panned when he was a kid strange that things are being forgotten or hidden

I agree, ive heard stories about people pulling sapphires from up around robertson and carrington falls but the exact locations have been vague at best.
I know some or the places are now in national park so they are a no go.
still there must be locations in the area that we can access that are sapphire bearing.

Can I recommend you take a visit up to the National Park there and talk to the rangers because a few years ago(6-8) one of them did a little fossicking and I found him most helpful and on our second day there at a spot he recommended out of the park he came and joined us for a half day. Can not remember his name though sorry, I am blaming old age, ha, ha.

Bob.

NavyBob said:

Can I recommend you take a visit up to the National Park there and talk to the rangers because a few years ago(6-8) one of them did a little fossicking and I found him most helpful and on our second day there at a spot he recommended out of the park he came and joined us for a half day. Can not remember his name though sorry, I am blaming old age, ha, ha.

Bob.

Click to expand...

Thanks navybob,
I may just do that. Any chance you could let me know the spot he directed you to? And is it public land or private property?
when you were there did you manage to find anything?

Hi

from memory it was public land, seats and a rubbish bin and a little creek running at the back of it. We camped to the side of that, camp was big enough for a couple of tents, it was just like 5 minutes outside the Park. Sapphires and zircons and what I needed for a project quartz in bigish cross sections.

Will get hold of the photos tomorrow and get the name for you.

Bob.

NavyBob said:

Hi

from memory it was public land, seats and a rubbish bin and a little creek running at the back of it. We camped to the side of that, camp was big enough for a couple of tents, it was just like 5 minutes outside the Park. Sapphires and zircons and what I needed for a project quartz in bigish cross sections.

Will get hold of the photos tomorrow and get the name for you.

Bob.

Click to expand...

That would be excellent mate. this could be the leed in that area Ive been looking for to hopefully find some sapphires close to home.
thanks heaps.

great work I did not know any place out side national parks here

If you follow this link and click on the little earth symbol halfway down the page you can access most known mineral deposits in NSW as Google Earth overlays, it shows the Sapphire deposits near Robertson too, there are quite a few. It says click discard on closing, I hit save instead so the data is always available in GE.

Click on the earth symbol, a tab will appear saying "Open With", hit "browse" and open with Google Earth. All data should be in the left hand column on GE.

Read the instructions on the page, easy, enjoy. Best of all it's free.

Ok, this link is not working right, when you follow this link, look at the left hand side, top of page it says "view our data in Google Earth", click that link and it takes you to the correct page.

http://dwh.minerals.nsw.gov.au/CI/warehouse

Hi,
found some photos from that trip. I have Minnamurra Falls Road and Flys Creek will look for the other photos.

Bob.

Thanks for that link Heatho this is really useful
Navybob ill have to check those places out and see what comes up.
thanks again guys!

Hello back in the 80's I believe, my dad and I used to go to Robertson on weekends for a day trip with Family. Europeans everywhere. from the actual carrington falls you could walk about 2 to 3 minutes north along the road and to the west side was Parking area for about 50 cars or so then you would walk across a creek that had a cement road beneath the running water this is where the children played with bright blue and bright red stones, (which I still have some in my collection.) walking more west a few hundred feet was what looked like gopher holes I guess and everyone used to walk along the edges of all these big and little Holes that were dug by every one, i can remember looking for my dad as he had dug below his height and had hit the bedrock and found some big specimens (many people got big specimens, unfortunately dad only found the ones that had flaws , like hairline cracks etc and could not be polished, however one was made into a piece of jewellery and then a star sapphire he found was made into a ring. after several years a fence was placed there and PRIVATE PROPERTY Trespassers will be prosecuted we saw a dozer go in but he seemed to be digging in the wrong spot anyway, (more north of the car park area.) i went up there several times again with my dad to just look and still do to this day go and look.
My dad died in 2000 but i think it was in 1998 we jumped through the barbed wire ( vary scary actually ) Water everywhere, but my dad was convinced it was the correct spot we went further through the tall cutting grass (yes cutting i remember that) lesson learnt when i was young) any way we found all the holes again all overgrown with grass but the holes are still there and they look like shallow graves ( as i said scary ) dad and i walked more west and found a bit of a clearing, we dug there for about 1 hour but every hole we made eventually would 1/2 fill with water. and you really needed to get to the bottom to get to the good stuff, we took 2 buckets of soil home with us that day, but we found nothing.
I went up there again last year 2013 and there is a camp site now where the PARKING used to be and just north of the camp site you can see a pile of pebble type stones where the dozer or digger was working that area was fenced with trespassers will be prosecuted sign but the fence is just like a property area now instead of the whole place, to the west of the camping site you can only walk as far as a creak or swimming whole (its changed allot up there) and I'm sure just west of this creek or river would be the exact spot, (but i'd say it would be close to being fully underwater now.

I think in the next 5 to 10 years down at the bottom of carrington falls where you only find Petrified wood will soon be sapphires to be found....so keep an eye out for it.

Regards
Claudio

PS, its MAY 2014 now and this week I'm going to near oallen Ford ( shoalhaven river ) i made a freind at work who baught a property up that way and his backyard has the river as the back bounday (yeah) I can't wait to go try for gold or anything i can find, but i'm only taking small hand gear with me, no metal detectors or sluices will i drag. the old panning will be good for the day... I'll try to keep you posted, however if i don't....there may be a reason. ha ha