John's New England Minerals and General Geology Blog: MINERAMA GEM AND MINERAL SHOW GLEN INNES NSW AUSTRALIA

MINERAMA GEM AND MINERAL SHOW GLEN INNES

NSW AUSTRALIA

Glen Innes Examiner report March 2010

Minerama is an annual gem and mineral show, held since 1990 in the NSW country town of Glen Innes. The district is celebrated for its gem and mineral deposits, which bring thousands of people to the town every year on gem hunting trips (fossickers is what we Aussies call such people, and I’ve been one of them most of my life).

Dealer pavilion at the Showground, 1994

Outside traders at the Showground 1994

The event is a natural outcome of the district’s mineral wealth. Not only do traders fill the auditorium of the town’s Services Club (* now back at the Showground) and overflow onto the adjoining parklands but hundreds go out into the countryside on organised trips. The combination is an excellent one and Minerama is reputed to be the largest annual event of its type in the state.

In the early years, Minerama was held at the town’s showground but relocated to the Services Club in 2000. Another feature of those days was the publication of an annual mineral booklet. Copies of these can

Inside the Services Club Auditorium

be freely downloaded from this Blog (2024). Minerama is now held at the Showground again.

Further information about Minerama (including how to reserve a trading site) can be found at these sites: Glen Innes Tourism and Minerama (here)

Note: Minerama has now returned to the showground.

Tailgaters

Why not join the enthusiastic crowd who come to Glen Innes each year for the second weekend in March? I’m sure you will be back again the next year if you do, and maybe in between for the rich fossicking opportunities the district has to offer.

You can experience fossicking around Glen Innes through my You Tube website here. I also have playlists on Glen Innes, the Blue Mountains and New Zealand.