THE NEWLY PROCLAIMED FOSSICKING AREA BARRINGTON TOPS

I have been checking it out with the map provided by the forestry people that give out the permits... their map of barrington tops is very good indeed showing very good detail of the tracks ect.. sapphires,zircons,rubies and microscopic diamonds can be found in this area.. Also 2 old gold mines to check out as well... maybe some gold as well. I am planning to give this newly opened up area a good going over now I don't have to worry about the rangers giving me a valve grind for being there.

Most excellent news indeed. My grandfather used to tell me tales of the things he found up there, including a nice gold reef. I may have to get the location from him and take a look

Here is a link to the map.. looks blurry untill you use the zoom feature to zero in on the area you want to see...very detailed... http://www.forestrycorporation.com....ing-area-map-barrington-tops-state-forest.pdf

A valve grind....lol :lol:

May be alright for gems...I dunno.

As far as gold goes, might as well look in the Manning River.
There are some other SF`s with gold merit...but I will not be going to BT SF

what is a SF and what is a BT SF???

Horse said:

May be alright for gems...I dunno.

As far as gold goes, might as well look in the Manning River.
There are some other SF`s with gold merit...but I will not be going to BT SF

Click to expand...

SF = State Forrest
BT = Barrington Tops

AH SO... thankyou..

Newly proclaimed? I think it has always been state forest available for fossicking just never had easily available maps before. The new permit system for the forests is showing benefits already.

Bit of a bummer that the Northern section is off limits, not sure why but I think the lease over it maybe from a Gem mining company. Though the North Western section of the fossicking area near Boggy Swamp is quite near to where the mining has been done, so could be quite a rich Gem area.

Will be doing some sampling on a mates 1000 acre property to the North East of there in a few weeks time, would be keen for a trip up there looking for Gems sometime in the SF too.

good luck happy hunting mate hope you get some good stones

Yes mbasko the new maps are far better than the ones that I was trying to use...brilliant. I have been doing some fairly serious study on gems in this location.. It has came to my knowledge that there are 2 main areas that have sapphires that are about 20km apart.. The most northern one being smack in the middle of the newly available barrington map..

Most of the creeks and rivers that drain from there contain gemstones. I noticed the little section near the Gummi River is a fossicking area too along the western boundary of the no go area.

Only one thing left to do now, get out there with some sieves and a shovel.

There are pink sapphires (rubies) up there, they are very small though. Also it is often 10 degrees cooler up on the mountain than at Gloucester. SO make provision for warm clothes. I have not been up there for over a year and did not know anything about gold. Would be interesting to run the highbanker to catch the sapphires and see what other heavies get trapped. I ll see if I can get a decent pic and post it.

Barrington Gravels. Most are only a bit bigger than a match head with the occasional larger one mixed in. One day I WILL uncover the "Retirement Stone" perhaps a 50 carat pink sapphire?

Some of the stones glow hot pink under a UV light which indicates chromium present in the stone. My phone does not pick up the flouro pink colour.

the 2 geological reports I have read say that further south on the head of the Gloucester river runs directly thru 2 separate diatream pipes that are thought to be the gem source on that river.. It was also reported that once the volcano was filled with water and it burst sending a huge torrent down the Gloucester river that must have washed a lot of gems further down river??? very small micro diamonds are reported from one of the pipes and yellow garnets as big as a mans thumb are reported in that area.. further north on the head of the kerripit river it is reported that gems are very small and broken up and widely available in the gravels.. I don't know about the new fossicking area being gold bearing but there are 2 old mines marked on the new map. unfortunately the Gloucester areas are a no go.. very sad because I even have the coordinates of the pipes and several gem bearing areas..

I have a similar report, but yeah totally off limits that NP area. Won't be that hard to find a creek that produces up there in the fossicking areas. Though there are plenty of other state forests that adjoin the NP such as Chichester, Avon River, heaps of places to explore.

After some thought it may be ok to go walking around on the pipes to have a look.. never know, may trip over a stone and put it in my pocket...

We have been exploring up there aswell, honing in on the southern au1 and au2 pipes and drainage from them.
Loads of great exploring to be done up there for sure.
Rod

Also, the northern off limits crown lease area are exloration leases and often if you contact the company holding the lease you can get permission to fossick on the lease in exchange for geological/mineralogical info you collect whilst fossicking, im not sure but i think cluff resources hold the leases up there still.
Rod