KELLY’S HUT CREEK NEAR
GLEN INNES NSW AUSTRALIA
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| Kelly's Hut Creek |
It’s surprising how few tributaries Yarrow Creek has upstream
of the bridge at Pinkett. A search on Google Earth will allow you to follow the
creek upstream from the bridge quite easily. On the left bank (facing upstream)
there are a few minor tributaries, of which Rainy Swamp Spring Creek is the
most interesting. See the blog on Rainy Swamp for information here.
Further up there are Mt Slow Creek and Log Paddock Creek near the Mt Slow road
bridge. Upstream from there Frenchies Swamp Creek is practically the only one.
(See here for information.) These creeks all carry gemstones.
There are one or two right bank tributaries, but the only
sizable one is Kelly’s Hut Creek which rises in the
distant hills towards Guyra
as does Yarrow Creek itself. This creek is crossed on the Mt Slow road about
2km before the Yarrow Creek bridge. There is no signpost, however.
The point where Kelly’s Hut Creek meets the Yarrow is not
easy to locate. It is a very rocky place and it so happens that the tributary runs
under a lot of boulders and is easily missed. For those who are familiar with
Dwyer’s property (for a long time a popular fee-paying fossicking area), you
take the tracks leading upstream as far as you can go, park near the dingo
fence, go through the big hole in it and walk upstream. Kelly’s Hut Creek is on
the right about 400 metres further on.
If you actually do this, you will be trespassing on the
neighbouring property. All of Yarrow Creek and Kelly’s Hut Creek past the dingo
fence are not on Dwyer’s property. Please note that on the various Minerama and
Baptist Church Fossicking Group trips, we did have permission from the
landowner but as the access track is not passable when the country is wet
such outings were rare. In fact, the last of these would have been in 2004.
For about 2km above the junction there are many rocky areas.
The gemstones are identical to those in Yarrow Creek, including pyrope garnets.
The creek then turns at right angles and runs parallel to Yarrow Creek, though
at a distance of about 2km from it. From this bend on, no more gemstones have
been found. Searches of the literature through DIGS were fruitless; in fact the
one reference I was able to locate stated categorically that, apart from
quartz, at no point were any gemstones located. Nevertheless, the various maps
showing the location of sapphire deposits in New England always include Kelly’s
Hut Creek, showing the very part that I am claiming is barren to be productive
and the part that we know is productive to be barren.
If you ever get a chance to fossick here I know you will
enjoy it. You will also be able to verify what I have written about the place.
As a guess, I think that the lower part of Kelly’s Hut Creek is probably a
former course of the Yarrow, though just how this came about I can’t work out.
The presence of garnet in the alluvium (found only in the Yarrow and some of
its tributaries) implies that at some point in time a source of garnet must
have been somewhere upstream. The geology of the catchment area of Kelly’s Hut
Creek today suggests that this is unlikely. If someone unravels this mystery
one day I will be glad to correct any errors in what I have written here.
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