Fossicking for Peridot (Olivine) at the Mount Shadwell Quarry

For the second weekend in a row we found ourselves out in the elements fossicking. This time we were at the Mount Shadwell scoria quarry where gem quality Olivine, or Peridot, can be found.

We attended this trip with other members of the Essendon Gem and Lapidary club.

Olivine, or Peridot, occurs within scoria bombs that must be opened first. The quality of the find varies from none to gem quality with the latter being rare. The act of opening the rock, with a small hammer, renders much of what you find shattered. We had a great day and our one and only cutter was a small piece that Bianca found whilst specking the ground. I will try to get it cut for her but the size of it is currently beyond my skill.

Overall we had a great day and i think everyone came away with something.

 

Powelltown Fossicking with ALF

I though i would post a few photos up of a recent fossicking trip i attended. With the support of many members from the Warragul Lapidary club, and the Australian Lapidary forum, a trip was organised to Powelltown in Victoria’s south east.

Powelltown is a great location that we have been to before and is a location that Topaz, Tourmaline and Quartz (Smokey) can be easily found. The actual fossicking is easy, once you access the creek, and consists of digging and sieving the sandy bottom of the creek. This time around we managed to find a couple of Smokey quartz points, a nice 300 carat clear quartz cutter, many black tourmaline specimens and one sliver of topaz that would be to small to cut.

Gemtree Update

Hi All,

Our trip finished safely with no real updates worth posting. This big highlight after the trip was receiving the cut stones from the gems we found at Gemtree. We had a pair of earrings made for caitlyn and a pendant made for Bianca. We also got 2 stones cut and left unmounted. The following photos attempt to show what we received and compare the cut Garnet to the raw stones we dug up.








Thanks for following our trips and we will have a new one posted very soon