Mt Gibson,FNQLD topaz and others

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Lovely day trip to innot hot springs. Only 7 odd km to mt Gibson..
Diggings every where. Found few nice clear topaz..worth the effort..[
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Nice mate! Insane as it may be, I'm thinking about doing that the week after next, weather and access permitting. We'll be in Mareeba for Christmas with the in-laws.

Christmas definately not the best time of year to be in FNQ but wife and mum-in-law wanted to meet up so.......
 
We raked out a significant amount of topaz and smokey up there the week before last. Most of it is only stuff that will cut haf a carat to two carats though, didn't find any of the big crystals we were shown there by another digger. Some pale blues, some colourless, quite a few pale gold - most of them just a hint of colour but topaz sure has sparkle to make up for any paleness!

Very hard, tough material. Seems to require a bit of pressure to polish. Got one on the dop now that was 6.6 in the rough but almost completely clean and a perfect shape for the square lighthouse design. Polishing those big pavilion facets is taking forever"!

First one I did was a pale blue, not much colour but a very nice stone, I gave it to my dad. Next one I did for myself is pale gold but I prefer the blue on, should have kept that one :)

No pics at present, home computer cactus and this little mobile device is intermittent.
 
Hi Rodney living and fossicking around the tablelands also.
Would love some advice on how to and where.?
 
Dskuey said:
Hi Rodney living and fossicking around the tablelands also.
Would love some advice on how to and where.?

Hi Rodney.

Mount Gibson fossicking area info here. The page has a pdf link with a map.

Having been there about 4 times I can tell you that the track in is getting close to extreme 4WD conditions. The above link says that conventional vehicles should only go as far as Gibson gully - personally, I can't see how a non-4WD car could possibly get even that far.

If you make it there is plenty of topaz there but it's very concentrated in a few tiny spots - go 50 metres outside the area and there seems to be nothing. You will see the mass of holes anyway when you're in the right spot. Look carefully at the ground in these spots and you will see heaps of tiny, glittering topaz crystals. Smoky quartz crystals are another good indicator of topaz in these spots.

My in-laws live in Atherton. If you have access to property anywhere on or around the Tablelands area, I would check it over - there is the potential for gemmy stuff in such a heavily vulcanized area.

Cheers
 
Hi lefty

Mainly interested in Quartz n such.
I have a conventional car lol
Would love to know any areas for such if you know of any?
Dee Skuthorpe on fb.
Thankyou
 
Dskuey said:
Hi lefty

Mainly interested in Quartz n such.
I have a conventional car lol
Would love to know any areas for such if you know of any?
Dee Skuthorpe on fb.
Thankyou

I know a great area for quartz crystals but it's down here between Gladstone and Bundaberg (Lowmead) so it's probably a bit far for you unfortunately :)

There are plenty of well-formed smoky quartz crystals at Mount Gibson. Unlike the Lowmead crystals they are all the one light shade of smoky but they can be very clean and I have faceted a few nice looking stones from some of them. I also found a few about the size of carrots and some broken ones that would have been at leas six or eight inches long going on the width of the broken-off cross section. Some good specimen quartz crystals there but you will need to convince someone with a 4WD to take you in there otherwise it will be a long walk from Innot Hot Springs and back.

There would probably be decent quartz crystals out at O'Briens creek near Mount Surprise - I only stopped there for about half an hour but picked up some small but well formed quartz crystals along the road.

One idea might be to ask at that little mining museum at Herberton. Your region is full of old tin mines and tin, topaz and smoky quartz seem to go together for some geological reason.
 
Lefty said:
Dskuey said:
Hi lefty

Mainly interested in Quartz n such.
I have a conventional car lol
Would love to know any areas for such if you know of any?
Dee Skuthorpe on fb.
Thankyou

I know a great area for quartz crystals but it's down here between Gladstone and Bundaberg (Lowmead) so it's probably a bit far for you unfortunately :)

There are plenty of well-formed smoky quartz crystals at Mount Gibson. Unlike the Lowmead crystals they are all the one light shade of smoky but they can be very clean and I have faceted a few nice looking stones from some of them. I also found a few about the size of carrots and some broken ones that would have been at leas six or eight inches long going on the width of the broken-off cross section. Some good specimen quartz crystals there but you will need to convince someone with a 4WD to take you in there otherwise it will be a long walk from Innot Hot Springs and back.

There would probably be decent quartz crystals out at O'Briens creek near Mount Surprise - I only stopped there for about half an hour but picked up some small but well formed quartz crystals along the road.

One idea might be to ask at that little mining museum at Herberton. Your region is full of old tin mines and tin, topaz and smoky quartz seem to go together for some geological reason.

Thank you for sharing this info. Going to search around MT Gibson and Innot Springs in July.
Hoping the road is accessible by then.
 

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