Stratford fossicking trip

Poor Bianca :)



We went out today with the Essendon Lapidary Club on a field trip to the Stratford area. Members from the McMillan rock hounds had offered to show us around.

The Avon River

For this trip, Thunder Eggs and Lava flow tuft were what we were looking for and we managed to find both.

For Bianca and I, the day started at 5am with a 3hr drive to meet up with the other members staying at the Stratford caravan park. Once meeting up we headed off in a 6 car convoy to the Thunder egg site. The site was very overgrown due to previous control burns and we were required to hack our way through the undergrowth a few hundred meters into the fossicking site. It seems that although thunder eggs can be found at various locations, this was one of the easier to get to with eggs that would yield some content.

As per the last field trip it seemed best to share the load and work a singe dig site. Chris and I dug whilst Bianca sorted the eggs out and filled the bucket. The fossicking was quite easy once we had located a "nest" and the biggest issue we faced, other than spiders, bull ants and centipede's, was carrying our haul out :)

The thunder eggs....

Once back at the car we all had lunch before heading out to a cutting that contained the lava flow tufts, apparently a sedimentary form of compressed lava that is suitable for cabbing. We managed to find some nice green tinted pieces.

Lava Flow Tuft

It was after this that most of the group decided to head back to the park, with Bianca and I heading home again



Thankyou to the McMillan Rockhounds for ahowing us around, It was a long day but well worth it. All that is left now is to open the eggs and see what we found.

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