Fossicking around Adelaide

[Gypsum]

Hello people, my first post here.

I am interested in finding some gemstones, semi-precious gems and cool rocks/minerals for my collection. I live in Adelaide and would ideally like to start looking in places that are close but wouldn't mind traveling/camping a little bit either.

I was hoping people could point me in the way of some good resources/reading that is about the greater Adelaide region? I am having a hard time finding anything specific online. I don't expect people to share their secret locations as I want to put a bit of effort in anyway. But I would like to know the rough areas I should be looking and ideally some of the techniques I should be using as I am fairly new to this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dughug]

G'day Gypsum,

Welcome to the forum.

Your best bet to find fossicking locations is to join a gem club in your area.

There are several Adelaide Clubs that regularly go fossicking for both old & gems. I often go out fossicking with the Murraylands Gem & Mineral Club. They have a monthly field trip where they look for a mix of minerals or gems and combine the day with a detecting location. Something for every one.

I have just returned to Adelaide following a weekend away to Berri where we obtained some very nice cut-able banded quartzite from one of the local quarries. One of our members had a scratch in the cliffs and found quite a few fossils. A couple of members also had a swing and found a small quantity of coins.

The Riverland Gem & Mineral Club held their bi-annual Gem show at the Berri town hall which was a good excuse to get away.

Look up the nearest Gem Club to you on the following AFLACA site

http://aflaca.org.au/members/gem-and-mineral-clubs-association-of-south-australia-gmcasa/

 

[Gypsum]

Thank you for the reply Dughug.
I have thought about joining a club but to be honest it would take a bit of the fun out of it for me. Put it this way, it wouldn't upset me if I went out fossicking and found absolutely nothing, just as long as I was confident I was looking in roughly the right area using roughly the right techniques.

From the limited amount of info I can find online, the best bet for me might be Mt. Crawford? But I wouldn't be entirely sure what technique would be ideal for there and where I should be applying it.

 

[Bigbarra]

Hi Gypsum,

you can also go fossicking for a variety of gems in the Mount Crawford State Forest. See link below for details. Not only can you find gold but also tourmaline, apatite and other gemstones. Enjoy!

https://www.forestry.sa.gov.au/Port...Mt Crawford EAST brochure_Dec2014_for web.pdf