THE CROSSING, YARROW CREEK NEAR GLEN INNES NSW AUSTRALIA

THE CROSSING, YARROW CREEK NEAR GLEN INNES NSW AUSTRALIA

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 now uses the place we know as the Upper Crossing. 

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.

9 carat garnet September 2007

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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https://johnsnewenglandminerals.blogspot.com/2013/12/list-of-all-blog-entries-to-date.html

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Limestone Caves of NSW

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1147003616874115974/2430103125095714141

Song Studies. Bible studies based on hymns and songs

https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/1515863000684737715

Shoalhaven District Geology.

30 carat sapphire January 2000

Finds from my last fossicking day at The Crossing - February 2012

THE BLACK JACK HOLE, YARROW CREEK NEW SOUTH WALES AUSTRALIA

THE BLACK JACK HOLE, YARROW CREEK NEW SOUTH WALES AUSTRALIA

This is the next productive area upstream from the Glory Hole in Yarrow Creek. I don’t recall actually seeing it until 2006 simply because in walking to the Glory Hole we had always cut off the bend in which the Black Jack Hole is located. When I first fossicked there, it was immediately obvious that there was a large amount of black spinel in a hole just below a rock on which any self respecting fossickers would have upended their sieves. We clearly weren’t the first to fossick there.

Nevertheless, the place has continued to produce cutters of all the typical Yarrow Creek gemstones – in cracks, under rocks, in scratchy areas under tea trees – and I have no doubt there are many more there yet.

One of my first jobs was to try to lower the water level, even just a little bit, to make it easier to work in the deeper water. This involved digging a channel through a sand blockage which was forcing the water to flow over a nearby rock bar. There are times when a 10 or 20 cm drop makes all the difference and this was one of them. There is probably more that can be done there yet.

One curious event happened after I had been taking groups there over several years. Unexpectedly, small, highly polished pieces of what I assume is rhodolite garnet began to turn up in one spot. Over several visits I found at least 20, some of them in the top sieve. I assume that someone on one of our Wednesday trips deliberately “salted” the spot with a sprinkling of tumbled garnet. Thanks, whoever it was – it made a change from finding pyrope garnet (the unpolished variety). Throw some gold nuggets in next time, please.

Visit my YouTube site here where you will find a video of the Black Jack Hole in the collection. 

https://johnsbluemountainsblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/links-to-all-blog-entries-and-relevant.html All Blue Mountains blogs and videos

https://johnsnewenglandminerals.blogspot.com/2013/12/list-of-all-blog-entries-to-date.html

All New England and other Geology blogs and videos

https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/1325599670344725659?pli=1

Limestone Caves of NSW

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1147003616874115974/2430103125095714141

Song Studies. Bible studies based on hymns and songs

https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/1515863000684737715

Shoalhaven District Geology.