Gem Tree

We spent two days on the way back staying at Gemtree Caravan Park. This park, on the Plenty Highway is one of the closest to the Gem fields surrounding Alice Springs.

Garnet and Zircon are two of the gemstones you can find in this region and we decided to go fossicking for Garnets as they were easier to find :)

We went on a "Tour" where a guide took us out to the claim owned by the caravan park, showed us what to do and then let us. We were the only people out there all day.

The Kids had heaps of fun getting very, very dirty.

The basic process was;

1. Dig out a bucket of dirt from the spot you have decided to work.
2. Fill up a sieve with a quantity of dirt
3. Rotate the sieve back and forward whilst holding it horizontal. This eliminated all the loose dirt leaving stones and clumps of dirt
4. Work the clumps until you only have stones left. The stones are then sorted and the non-garnets are removed. These are clearly not gemstones
5. Place the sieve in the water to wash the remaining dirt away. Again, you can eliminate any that are clearly not garnet such as quartz and ironstone
6. When the stones are clean, you hold the sieve up to the light, and if you are lucky, you will see clear red stones amongst the normal rock. This is your garnet.

You repeat this process "ALL DAY"

Upon returning to the camp the owners will sort through your findings and determin what can be cut. We managed to find quite a few cutters allowing us to get 4 stones cut, up to 6mm, with another 4 stones being cut for a 6mm ring, a 5mm pendant and a pair of 4mm earrings. We also still have quite a few cutable stones left.

Back at camp the site was great. We had a camp fire going basically two days straight and all our meals were cooked on it. The only issue was the amount of flies during the day.