Garnet Fossicking in Gemtree Sat 16th June
Some fellow travellers suggested we go to Gemtree to go fossicking for garnets and zircons (turn right off Stuart Hwy 70km north of Alice Springs onto Plenty Hwy and proceed another 70km).
What a good idea, so we did exactly that. There is a nice caravan park at Gemtree, with an excellent 3.5km nature trail. I walked/ran, Judy went on her electric bike.
Next morning we were up in time to pack up the caravan, move it off the site, and line up for our fossicking gear by 8:15am ... a supreme effort. Fossicking gear is: pick, shovel, bucket, 20 litre container of water, washing "bowl", four sieves and a tin to put our loot into.
In convoy with the other 14 fossickers, we drove 30km further east to the garnet "field". Clive showed us what to do (and found the odd piece of garnet in the process). We then went to work.
Dig up some dirt, crush it with the pick, sieve the dirt, put it through the secondary crusher (the bucket), sieve it and pass it to the washing process (Judy). In one of the wet sieves Judy washes the crushed remnants in the washing bowl, then holds them up to the sun to see if she can see any translucent red stones.
On returing to the campsite Clive checks our gems. One that will cut to a 4.5mm stone and about ten others that will yield 3 to 3.5mm stones. We were satisfied with our morning's work, but we won't rely on this to make our fortune.