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| The Crossing (C), The Cascades (L) and the Black Jack Hole (R) |
Readers will have noticed that we have given names
to the various locations along Yarrow Creek where we have taken fossicking
groups over the years. There are 14 named places and this has turned out to be
a useful way of describing where particular gems have been found or to let
regulars know where we intended to go next week.
The
Crossing is one of the first places to which I took groups
for Minerama field trips. It marks
the point where 2 wheel drive vehicles can go no further and even 4 wheel
drives would have trouble with it today. The landowner uses the place we know
as the Upper Crossing.
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| The finds that started it all. March 2007 |
I had not paid a great deal of attention to this
spot believing it to have been well worked over on those earlier trips,
until I observed a fossicker on another trip removing a few rocks from a hole
in the bed of the creek. He had some nice gems, including some topaz, and I
determined to pay it a visit on one of our regular Glen Innes Baptist Church
outings. It was then that I realised what we had been missing.
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| 9 carat garnet September 2007 |
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| January 2008 |
There is a series of cracks running across the
creek and each of these has been followed under the bank until the overburden
has become too great. There are also several holes jammed up with granite
boulders which have yet to be cleared out, if they ever can be.
We always
seemed to be beaten by a combination of factors – the weight of the rocks, the
depth of the water and the problem of where to put the rocks if we ever got
them out. Maybe future fossickers will succeed where we have failed.
There are other possible traps in old channels or
beneath deep sand. Who knows?
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| 30 carat sapphire January 2008 |
My You Tube gem hunting playlist is here .There are three other playlists – on the Blue Mountains, Glen
Innes and New Zealand.
https://johnsbluemountainsblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/links-to-all-blog-entries-and-relevant.html
All Blue Mountains blogs and videos
All New England and other Geology blogs and videos
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| Finds from my last fossicking day at The Crossing - February 2012 |
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