The Gemfields (Sapphire and Rubyvale)

The Central Queensland Gemfields cover a large area west of Emerald and have produced sapphires since the 1870s, in blues, greens, yellows and the parti-coloured stones the field is known for. The villages of Sapphire and Rubyvale are working communities of small-scale miners living in dongas and dugouts among the diggings. For visitors, the standard experience is buying a bucket of wash, gravel dug from a claim, and sieving and sorting it at a trough under instruction, with whatever turns up yours to keep. Underground mine tours run at Rubyvale, and a fossicking licence allows searching on designated public areas. The country is dry, hot and covered in mullock heaps.

What you actually see

• The bucket washing - sieving gravel at a trough for sapphires.
• The underground tours - guided walks through hand-dug mine workings.
• The mining villages - Sapphire and Rubyvale with their diggings and dugouts.
• The public fossicking areas - designated ground open under licence.

When to go

April to September; summer temperatures pass forty degrees and shade is scarce. Winter is the busy season with travellers heading north. Rain can flood workings and close fossicking areas.

Honest expectations

Most bucket washing produces small or low-grade stones, and expectations should be modest. Cutting and setting anything found costs extra. Abandoned shafts around the fields are dangerous, and fossicking outside designated areas is illegal.

Nearby

Emerald lies east; Carnarvon Gorge is south.