Kangaroo Valley specimens ( agates,jaspers and pet wood)

Before I post some of my specimens let me be clear who you are dealing with here
The other member of my august committee Otto, he doesn't disagree with anything much, never picks up discredited terms, even allows colour to be spelt with the u. As I haven't kept up with the latest technology apparently please forgive the focus in some photos I put it down to climate change .
An agate from the valley crystal centre.
This one appears to be squashed during formation


Alas the colour is not uniform, nice crystal centre.
Paler the iron colouring has not followed any agate pattern. Note a fine crack where I used to tap rocks together to judge there texture definitely a discredited practice with agates.
Before you hop in the car note these were collected when I was a teenager as the area has been well fossicked since. The agates seem to be associated (spatially) with the Camberrawarra flows some 400ft of lava flows, sills, dykes tuffs and volcanic breccias. Ah metric I know .I have jaspers and pet wood to go in another post.

Jaspers found below a cliff where a band metres wide appears to be bedded in between lava flows. The jasper here has a waxy texture which gives a good polish.

A volcanic breccia found here appears to have angular pieces of the jasper bedded in it.

Some very nice material there Ted, particularly that agate - three of the four photos in your first post look like Agate creek material!!

I like that jasper as well, I found a piece at Riverslea with the identical colour scheme.....but never anything like those agates, they are beautiful.

What kind of volcanics were they at Kangaroo valley? Going on the map Goldirocks posted, the Riverslea deposit consists of trachyte, rhyolite and some other magma type I can't recall.

Thank you so much for posting those photos. The agates i have found from the Valley so far do not come close to yours, but gives me hope i may still stub my toe on something nice

There are still some nice bits of jasper to be found, but as with the agates the best time to hunt seems after a flood and even then it seems to be patchy.

After seeing your piece of volcanic breccia, i am now questioning what i thought was altered sandstone and conglomerate i have found...

The Cambewarra flow is called a porphritic latite however with the depth of the flow there is considerable variation. This is oldish late Permian 200my but there is several post Triassic intrusions lamprophyre, which have come through the older volcanics 17-24 million years ago, and its one of those I associate with much of the silica mineralisation here.
The specimens following have been found as a distinctive volcanic plug is approached along one arm of Kangaroo Valley.
10k from the plug above and below showing bark,growth rings, worm holes and decayed core.

These following two have been found about5k from the plug.

This is a collection close to the plug with one on the left from the 10k spot for comparison


Opps that posted before it was supposed too, the locality of the finds proves nothing so can only hope there is nothing to argue about, whether it was hot, cold or just right

I like the "sad face" piece

So, the closer the plug the blacker in this particular case?

So, the closer the plug the blacker in this particular case?

Yes for whatever the reason.

Great stuff. I was able to collect a fair bit of petrified wood and jasper in the valley (downstream of the bridge) back in the early '70's, but had no luck with the agates.

The agates were always a bit rare but the secret was they were downstream of the township of Cambewarra in the creek running through the town now reclaimed, built on etc.The opposite side of the mountain to the Valley. There used to be extensive gravel beds there alas no more.

Not from Kangaroo Valley but from up Lefty's way, a couple of Thundereggs showing I think two stages of formation ie cooling.


Whatever there nice to look at.

Are they Mount Hay eggs Ted? I like them but I have't seen any quite like them from the area (not that I've collected any myself - I was only very young when we used to go there. I still have about a third or a quarter of a drum of un-sawn small ones that grandad found).

Yep Mt Hay many moons ago.

Well there you go - very different to any I have seen from there. I'll have to get some piccies together.

Another reminder of how complex things can be and how we can see surprising variation over short distances

fossickeract said:

Yep Mt Hay many moons ago.

Click to expand...

Nice Agate Creek agates and thunder eggs