Emerald: home to claw, coal and cotton

 Sun 4^th July

Now that’s a first. I had a lovely hot shower in the block 50m from our site only to realise, as I stood naked, dripping and beginning to cool, that I had forgotten my towel. I swear it will not happen again.

On a cool but clear morning we drove south to Emerald. I always assumed Emerald was named after the gemstone, this being right in the centre of the Qld gemfields. Turns out the first settler in the area (around 1860) was so impressed by the greenness of the pastures that he called the property Emerald Downs. The town takes its name from his property.

The first 200kms was easy going and we swapped drivers at Clermont. We’ve entered the Bowen Basin, Australia’s largest coal reserve. This is also the site where Bob Brown and the anti-Adani mine protesters met with the local pro mining community. We kept our mouths shut and kept moving south.

From here and for the next 250kms the surface of the road became rough, somewhat like a choppy day on the harbour and a girl could quite easily get seasick if her eyes weren’t fixed on the horizon. Of course the motion is only exacerbated by towing a caravan. And the horizon was way, way off. Today we have passed through crops that stretch right across the flat country plains. It’s the first time we have seen any form of cropping; sorghum I think. At least from the region of Capella we were able to enjoy a view of the Peak Range, a chain of prominent mountains between here and Mackay. 

Once we had set up at Emerald Tourist Park, we went for a wander through the nearby botanic gardens on the banks of the Nogoa River. The gardens extend over 42 ha and were very impressive. We only managed a small portion of them really and will have to return.

 We had considered using the free camp right beside the gardens, but we are glad we didn’t; Campers are jammed in between the railway line and a busy road. We are in the park with facilities for $8 per night.

As the sun went down so did the temperature, it is going to be cooler from this day forward.  My turn to win backgammon.

Monday 5^th July

Bbbrrrrrr! It’s too cold this morning; 9 deg at the earliest but we missed that. Eric braved a shower but he wished he hadn’t.  It was mid-morning by the time we were ready to go. Time to check out the local fossicking sites and get someone to assess my topaz. 

There are 4 townships that boast fossicking success about 50kms west of Emerald; Anakie, Sapphire, Rubyvale and Willows. You can't miss the turnoff because this lovely sculpture marks the spot.

At least this time I had sought some info from the web and was confident there would be plenty of people offering to help as there were so many advertising boards as we approached the region. I settled on Miners Cottage, a fossicking park, not least because they offer free scones and coffee while you fossick. 

I paid for a bucket of ‘wash’ (rather than dig it myself) and the use of their equipment, then I was shown the technique and left to my own devices while they sorted through everyone elses’ treasures. You see everyone else had arrived much earlier than us. 

1.     First you pour some of the wash from the bucket into a special double sieve so you can shake the excess dust out;

2.     Put the sieve into the dunking contraption called a Willoughby;

3.     Spend some time washing the dirt and mud off your rocks;

4.     Take your sieve full of rocks to the table and flip it, like a cake from a cake tin, onto the hessian bag;

5.     Grab your tweezers and start pulling out the bits that look like shining glass. With any luck these will be Sapphires or Zircons. They come in all hues – blue, green, yellow, red and black star.

2.5 hrs later, Eric by now bored to tears, we headed back to Emerald. I have a small bag of chips in my pocket and we both need lunch.  Eric thinks I am completely bonkers. I never did discover if my find at O'brien's Creek is topaz or not. We noticed there had been a fire in the camp facilities, either during the night or while we’ve been away today. Fortunate that gas bottles hadn’t exploded. 

After a break we went for another walk around the Botanic Gardens, this time concentrating on the western side.  The gardens are organised into eco-zones from throughout the region so there is an example of plants from the sandstone plateau, the rainforest and a palm valley for instance. There are also some lovely sculptures and a working windmill.

We checked out the golf course and it looks very impressive so we will play when we return. The next two nights are at Carnarvon Gorge then we return to Emerald and head west.

For dinner we indulged in fish and chips cooked at the caravan park and they were delicious. Emerald is home to Maraboon Dam, 3 times larger in capacity than the Sydney Harbour and apparently great for catching Red Claw Crayfish, Saratoga, Fitzroy Yellowbelly, Murray Cod, Silver Perch and Barramundi to name a few.