Part 1.
Whilst staying at Emerald in Queensland last winter we visited 'The Gemfields', a place we had never been before.
The Gemfields are in the Central Highland area near the town of Emerald.
What an experience - couldn't live there or have their lifestyle, not for me but each to his own.
The sides of the road were dust.
Gem shops kind of hidden, if it hadn't been for the lovely lady in the Caravan Park in Emerald we wouldn't have known which shop to enter, or even if there was a shop there. Certainly a good experience.
The first town we came to was Sapphire, then 8 klm on was Rubyvale, this latter town had a nice hotel and accommodation and the price of some of the gemstones were very expensive as in the thousands of dollars.
Both towns have sapphires all different colours.
You can fossick at Sapphire at one of the shops, there apparently is always a very small sapphire to be found but we didn't bother. I went to one of the shops and bought a yellow sapphire, 3 actually in the one ring.
The first few photos are of Sapphire.
This is the first shop we came across and it was well back off the road.
This is the lock on the post for the gate where I purchased my ring below.
Below are photos of Rubyvale.
A phone box with 3 sides and such old phone books, our mobile phones did work in both towns.
A Gem shop in Rubyvale again well back off the road.
Two different accommodation places and somewhere to eat, a nicer part of the town.
Below - further up the road.
