Gemini Park, Sapphire, Australia

LOL. Aimless walk. This van park is located in the middle of prime gem land. The area has changed a lot since my first visit. Now the big mining areas are fenced off, before there were no fences.

It was perfect for "specking" (short for prospecting). And believe it or not, I rented that trailer in the picture when I was there!

I did find a few specs of sapphire my last time, nothing like in '84 when I could survey newly disturbed areas that weren't fully mined yet.

And yes, in areas around here you can just find gemstones lying on the ground! Maybe I'll even take a pic of some that I found (I still have most of them from my first visit in the 80s). I did have a gem cutter in Sri Lanka work a few of the stones for me. My 7 and half carat sapphire was reduced to 5 carats after cutting. I got some beautiful "sergeant stripes" sapphires (rare) and a beautiful triangular sapphire I had made into jewelry which I gave as a present.

Note that australian sapphires are NOT the most desirable. Those come from Sri Lanka, where the cornflower blue is the choice and most expensive. However any sapphire can be heated to become clearer, and those Aussie sapphires often have a greenish hue.