GEM DEPOSITS ALONG THE SARA RIVER
NEW ENGLAND NSW AUSTRALIA
This area is one of the most interesting gem producing
regions in New South Wales. It’s also one of the most frustrating because of
the difficulty in gaining access to the river and its tributaries. The map is extracted
from the Records of the Geological Survey of NSW 14(1), which contains a valuable article titled “Sapphires in the New England District, New
South Wales”. If you would like to download a copy, try Trove or locate DIGS.
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| Backwater-Kookabookra area, 40km south-east of Glen Innes |
A further
complication is that the river is sometimes called the Mitchell River;
adding to the confusion is the fact that the nearby Mann River also has the
Mitchell River as an alternative name!
There is plenty of
information in issues of “Gold, Gem and Treasure” magazine, the Australian
Lapidary Forum (ALF) website (here) and on DIGS (if you can locate it).
Practically every
tributary of the Sara (Mitchell) river is worth fossicking. Unfortunately, they
are nearly all either on private land, in a National Park or simply nowhere
near a road or track. If you wish to get onto private land areas, you are going
to have to approach landowners for permission. Many of them will have already
had enough of trespassers, shooters, people who dig holes and don’t backfill
them, fire lighters and fence cutters, so be prepared for an earful.
It isn’t at all
obvious from the map, but the river rises on the upper left of the map (west of
Bullwarra), passes under the Backwater road (signposted as the Mitchell River)
and flows south of Mt Mitchell via the Horse Shoe Bend to Kookabookra and
beyond. The creek south of it is coloured green to indicate that it carries
sapphire. The fact is, so do most of the streams and gullies on the map.
As a guide for
readers, I’ll say something about the three areas I have actually been to.
Firstly, upstream of the Backwater road bridge. We checked this out once
for a possible Minerama trip but rejected it because of our poor finds that
day. This was on Bullwarra property. The area was mined for gems, probably in
the 1970’s, and all I found was a few bits of sapphire on the track (evidently
spilled with gravel on the way to the treatment plant) and a nugget of
cassiterite (tinstone) two or three centimetres across, which I saw lying on
the ground. We were unaware of the fact that Cockatoo Creek was also gem bearing, otherwise we would have checked it out too.The presence of gold and
cassiterite (tin) in the wash is normal for the area. Whether any mining was
ever carried on in this creek I cannot say.
The Horse Shoe
Bend section of the river is accessible by 4WD vehicles along the Horse
Shoe Bend fire trail, which is reached by following McGarry’s Lane and Aqua
Park Road eastwards off the Backwater road, a little south of the Yarrow Creek
bridge. The descent is quite spectacular, with Crown Mountain (granite
outcrops) straight ahead at the beginning of the trail. From the fossicking
point of view, the problem is that most of the area is now in the Warra
National Park. See this article from National Parks and Wildlife (here).
Although much is said about the flora, fauna, history etc nothing is said about
the reason many people would want to go there – fossicking. I have been there
only once and found gold and small gemstones in the river easily enough.
Another DIGS document (Reference number R00046781) makes for interesting
reading at this stage. It’s a summary of the prospecting done in the area by Mr W Madgwick
of Glen Innes in 1974. There is private property all around and trespassers are
certainly not welcome.
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| Sara River at Kookabookra. Photo by Wwoofa, ALF |
Most of the
information available concerns the third area, at Kookabookra. This is
well known as a fossicking area which produces quartz crystals, black
tourmaline (schorl), gold, cassiterite (tin), topaz, sapphire and zircon.
Fortunately for our generation, the early miners were only after gold and tin
and discarded the rest. The actual area is well described in the blogs I listed
near the beginning of this blog. This land is, I believe, a crown land lease
held by the adjacent landowner who has given permission for fossickers to work
there. Please respect this permission and do not trespass elsewhere, camp, light fires or leave rubbish
behind. There is a further accessible area at the Sara River bridge a kilometre
or so downstream, on the Ward’s Mistake road. This branches off the
Pinkett road on the right a short distance back towards Glen Innes.
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| The Mitchell River Dredge from the Pinkett history book |
This stretch of the
river was extensively dredged, especially in the depression years. Sue’s
grandfather worked as a woodcutter for the Mt Mitchell (Mitchell River) dredge and her mother
began her schooling at the nearby Kookabookra school. If you can find a copy,
the little book “Pinkett, Mogg’s Swamp, Kookabookra Past and Present” (1988)
makes good reading.
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
Limestone Caves of NSW
Song Studies. Bible studies based on hymns and songs
Shoalhaven District Geology.
