Killiecrankie diamonds

[user 1769]

I was in Flinders Island for work the last two weeks and had a chance to go fossicking for Killiecrankie diamonds in the last day. Contrary to their name, they are topaz, not diamond, but most are crystal clear, unlike the topaz from NE Tasmania in general, which has a much higher percentage of opaque stones.

There are two main areas: around Killiecrankie Bay in intertidal gravels, and in Mines Creek, SE of Mount Tanner. The tide was wrong for me when I got to the beach at Killiecrankie, so I went to sieve in the creek for 3 hours. Lots of smaller topaz and plenty of crystals in there. There are topaz in the old tertiary gravels in the old mining holes, and in the mine overburden heaps, as well as in the creek where there was relatively undisturbed gravel. Later on I drove back to Killiecrankie and walked the 3 km to the north end of the beach, to the mouth of Diamond Gully. By this time it was 3 pm. I looked around for a while and finally settled down on a promising spot. I opened my backpack and realised I'd left my sieves in the car. It takes 1 hr to walk back the beach, so I had no time to go get them and return for a fossick before I had to head back down to Whitemark for dinner.

Anyway, here is the result of the 3 hours in and around the creek. Some nice cutters in there:

 

[Wally69]

Nice haul for several hours work :lol:

 

[Heatho]

They look great, well done.

 

[Ben78]

My SIL was telling me on the weekend about these, and then I come on the forum and there they are! Nice looking topaz, very clear! Be interested to see what they come up like when cut.

 

[rod]

Lovely looking stones m8, great work on the find and i too would love to see how the look cut.
Rod

 

[user 1769]

I was surprised how much clearer on average they are compared to mainland Tassie stuff. Next time for the big ones!

 

[Varts]

Nice ones there

 

[Colin&Lee]

Great work for a few hour mate, can't wait to get down to Tassie hopefully later this year

Cheers

Col

 

[user 1769]

Thanks! Hey, Col, if you're coming down send me a PM, I might be able to take a couple of days off!

Miguel

 

[Colin&Lee]

Thanks! Hey, Col, if you're coming down send me a PM, I might be able to take a couple of days off!

Miguel

Definitely mate

Cheers

Col

 

[Dozzer]

Howdy Miguel, I'm off to Flinders on Saturday for the week and I had a few questions. Is it worth taking the 1/8 sieve or just the 1/2 and 1/4? Also should I stick to mine creek or would you give the bay/diamond gully prefrance?

Thanks

 

[Dozzer]

Would the waders be of any benefit in the creek, are there deep holes?

 

[user 1769]

Hi Dozzer,

I bought a 1/2 after seeing yours, and used that and the 1/4. The 1/8 is a waste of space over there.

I found the locals really cagey about where to go, and pretty unhelpful. The guy at the Killiecrankie cafe outright said he had no idea, which I find hard to believe, given he rents sieves and has the only cafe in a town that lives off tourism, and a good chunk of that is fossicking tourism. So to give you the short of it: the creek produces good small crystals, but I found none on the 1/2, though it's still very good as a fast way to screen off the coarse gravel. The water depth was ok for shorts when I was there, you wouldn't need waders. I did ok a couple of hundred meters down the creek from the main mining area. The area around the mouth of Diamond Gully seems very thoroughly fossicked. It was hard to see any gravel-sized material, and it's only worth the 1 km walk along the beach in really low tide. BTW I wouldn't advise driving along the beach, it seems nice and hard at the Killecrankie end, but the sand suddenly gets soft about 1/2 way through. The walk is about 1 hour from Killiecrankie to Diamond Gully. Also worth visiting the next bay along after that, for a spectacular calcarenite arch.

I did see a lot of pegmatite veins with coarse crystallisation (the supposed source of the topaz) also in Deep Bight, just to the west of Killiecrankie township, right on the innermost part of the bay among the beach cobbles and gravel, and near a large stack of calcarenite. However I was working and didn't have my fossicking gear. I bet there is good topaz there, and I wished I'd had time to spend. The approximate coordinates are -39.89734, 147.82184.

Good luck!

 

[Dozzer]

Thanks Miguel, some great info there. I'll let you know how I go. Good to here the 1/2" is working out.

 

[cormorant]

Hey Miguel , nice work there . clear as diamonds eh ! do you know if there are any blue topaz on flinders ?
Ditto with me for a pm when something is happening , I am heading to my caravan at lake Burbury for easter , taking sieves ,pan ,detector . might have a snoop around the lake as it's 8 mtrs down at the moment and all that new uncovered ground entices me for sure . beautiful place and all welcome ! just pm me if you get the chance . goes for everyone on forum .
Cheers .

 

[Hunting the yellow]

I was in Flinders Island for work the last two weeks and had a chance to go fossicking for Killiecrankie diamonds in the last day. Contrary to their name, they are topaz, not diamond, but most are crystal clear, unlike the topaz from NE Tasmania in general, which has a much higher percentage of opaque stones.

There are two main areas: around Killiecrankie Bay in intertidal gravels, and in Mines Creek, SE of Mount Tanner. The tide was wrong for me when I got to the beach at Killiecrankie, so I went to sieve in the creek for 3 hours. Lots of smaller topaz and plenty of crystals in there. There are topaz in the old tertiary gravels in the old mining holes, and in the mine overburden heaps, as well as in the creek where there was relatively undisturbed gravel. Later on I drove back to Killiecrankie and walked the 3 km to the north end of the beach, to the mouth of Diamond Gully. By this time it was 3 pm. I looked around for a while and finally settled down on a promising spot. I opened my backpack and realised I'd left my sieves in the car. It takes 1 hr to walk back the beach, so I had no time to go get them and return for a fossick before I had to head back down to Whitemark for dinner.

Anyway, here is the result of the 3 hours in and around the creek. Some nice cutters in there:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1769/1396779295_photo.jpg

did a lot better than me lol

simeon hunt

 

[user 1769]

I just noticed I made a mistake on my previous post. The walk to Diamond Gully from the car park is about 3 km or 1 hour.

 

[Guest]

Hey guys
I've heard about these Killacranky diamonds and from what I saw they came from the beach around that area. You need to wait for low tide and dig as hard and fast as you can and some stone is of good size too!

 

[Dozzer]

Yes they can be. 500+ct

 

[Kingsolomon]

Dats a cutter .... Good stone to put on a septer or something... Lol! Congrats...