Fossick Map
Can you fossick at Sapphire and Rubyvale?
Yes. You need a Queensland fossicking licence, and you can only dig on the five public fossicking areas (Sapphire, Rubyvale, Scrub Lead, Divide and Reward), never on the mining claims and leases, which are marked with posts. Sapphires are the main find. For a first trip, skip the deep ground around the towns and go to the Washpool diggings on the Reward area, where the wash is shallow.
| Licence | Queensland fossicking licence, individual or family, for one month, six months or a year. Prices and online sales are on the Queensland Government licence page |
| Camping | Allowed on the fossicking areas with a separate camping permit, for up to 3 months, but not within 1.5 km of the Sapphire or Rubyvale town centres. Permit details |
| What you’ll find | Sapphire, mostly fine blues with greens and yellows. Corundum is common at Divide |
| Best for beginners | Washpool diggings (Reward), and the shallow wash at Sapphire, best from the town towards its northern boundary |
A family licence covers you, your partner and your children, including students under 23 who live at home. You don’t need a licence at a fossicking park or tourist mine that charges entry.
Getting there and what to bring
Sapphire is 40 km west of Emerald and Rubyvale is 50 km north-west. Turn off the Capricorn Highway at Anakie onto Anakie Sapphire Road.
Both towns have fuel, supplies, accommodation and caravan parks, and you can fill up with drinking water at the Sapphire water facility. The fossicking areas have nothing. Reward has only a solar phone, so carry your water from Sapphire, be self-sufficient and take your rubbish home.
To reach Reward, head south-west from Rubyvale on Keilambete Road for 1 km, turn left at the Reward sign and drive 4.3 km to the entrance (Sign 52). A further 1 km on, at Sign 54, a track crosses Retreat Creek to the Washpool diggings. Parts of the road are unsealed, and tracks south-east of Sapphire may need a 4WD.
When to go: the cooler months. At Emerald the average top temperature is 23 to 26°C from June to August and 34 to 35°C from December to February.
What to bring: only hand tools are allowed: a pick, a shovel, sieves, buckets and water for washing. Waterholes in Retreat Creek near the Washpool track can have enough water to wash your gravel.
Where to look and how
The sapphires sit in the wash, a layer of gravel and clay that lies on top of the bedrock. You dig down to the wash, sieve it, wash it, and pick through what’s left.
How deep you dig depends on where you are:
| Area | How deep the wash is | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Reward, Washpool diggings | Shallow | First-timers and families |
| Sapphire, north of town | Shallow surface wash | First-timers |
| Divide, west of the ridge | Usually 2 to 3 m, up to 6 m | Patient diggers |
| Rubyvale | About 2 m near town, up to 8 m | Experienced fossickers |
| Scrub Lead | 3 m to more than 12 m | Few places left to fossick. Some of the best blues came from here |
You can’t dig deeper than 2 metres, you can’t dig tunnels or leave overhangs, and you must fill in your holes before you leave.
Honest odds: this ground has been mined since about 1890, and the government says much of it is extensively mined and under claim. Go for the day out, not the payday. If you want to be sure of finding something, the fossicking parks in Rubyvale sell buckets of wash that is already dug, ready to sieve.
The story
Sapphires turned up at Retreat Creek in the early 1870s, according to Queensland Places. The Gemological Institute of America credits the first find to Archibald John Richardson, a government surveyor working on the railway line in 1875, who went on to file a claim at Anakie. The two accounts may describe different finds.
Serious mining started at Sapphire in about 1890, and Rubyvale, first called Policeman’s Creek, from 1891. Rubyvale had 630 people by 1921. Then the trade collapsed: Sapphire went from 299 people in 1921 to 79 in 1933.
The field came back in the 1960s, when Thai buyers began coming to Australia for rough stones. Thai dealers learned to heat-treat the dark Australian blues to brighten them, and the demand set off a boom from 1967 to 1979.
The most famous stone from here is the Black Star of Queensland. A 12-year-old boy, Roy Spencer, found it in the 1930s on the Reward claim near Rubyvale. His father, a miner, took it for a big black crystal, and the family story is that it held a door open for years before anyone looked closely. It was sold uncut in 1947 to the Los Angeles jeweller Harry Kazanjian, and cut into a 733-carat star sapphire. Sources disagree on the rough weight, 1,156 or 1,165 carats.
Around here
- Where to stay: caravan parks and accommodation in Sapphire and Rubyvale, or camp on the fossicking areas with a camping permit.
- Glenalva, signposted 62 km south of Emerald: shallow wash, rarely more than half a metre deep, with good greens and yellows. The gully tops are good for specking (scanning the ground for stones washed out by rain) after a storm. No water, so carry your own.
- Willows Gemfields, 69 km west of Emerald, with its own caravan parks and shop. Known for large greens and yellows.
- Miners Heritage Walk-In Mine, 97 Heritage Road, Rubyvale: a guided tour underground through a sapphire mine, suitable for all ages. Afterwards you can buy a bucket of wash and fossick for your own stones. Times and prices are on its Visit Capricorn page, linked above.