Sapphire Bend, Oberon NSW

[Varts]

You can easily get to areas in the smallest of cars ,some existing holes with wash layer in these are right on the side of the road.there is a dam easily accessible aswell.you can dry sieve at the hole and wash at the dam ,this minimises the dirt buckets you have to carry in your car boot.

 

[YIPPEKAIAY]

Sapphire bend you can get to with car i take my camry there .... Some locals say gold is coming from abercrombie as they have it in their bores but dont go down there as its fools gold

 

[Raptor]

Thanks Varts and Yippekaiay...I will try that area in Sapphire bend

 

[YIPPEKAIAY]

No woz bro im fairly new n know what its like research persistence n it aint the kill its the HUNT!!

 

[Matturbo]

hopefully I'll be able to meet up with peoples at SB in a couple months, I need to run back to sydney every weekend for a while longer.

 

[Digginholes]

There are many areas in oberon to check out, you could get to pretty much all of them in any car some may need a little caution and even a little walk.
Sewells creek is another good spot or head a little further down the road from black springs towards porters retreat and there is the twincreeks I think it was called just past shooters hill rd there's a dirt track on the right going up the hill, park the car and you can dig on the hill (very hard digging) or walk down and look in the creek, there is also a little gold in the creek.

 

[Colour Blind]

Heading out to SB tomorrow afternoon for a quick dig with my wife and daughter, hoping to get my first Sapph and get the wife interested
Anyone else going to be out there tomorrow/ Thursday? I might need a few pointers :8

 

[Matturbo]

Sorry mate, I live nearby but don't get home till 6.30 or so.

 

[Colour Blind]

Went to SB on Wednesday for a dig, 4 year old daughter fell in a hole, torrential rain and managed to confirm that I have no idea what I'm doing, topped off with being colour blind sapphire hunting might not be the best sport for me :lol:

In saying that I did go back there on Friday morning to try again, rained again but still had fun.

Never the less, I did manage to find a tiny blue stone a couple of terminated clear quarts crystals and some other stones that im not sure about. Due to the rain I half cleaned a few buckets of dirt and bought some gravel home to clean and go through with more time, fingers crossed.

I'll post some picks when I get my post count up.

 

[madfisher]

Im coming back there when it gets too hot up here...so nice digging in the trees for a change. Ill post dates and id be happy to help anyone with my meagre knowledge .cant stop going to inverell but its really getting hot ... maybe oberon-oallen ford then vic for summer. Be great to catch up for a dig mattturbo

 

[phantom83]

Hi all,

I was out at Blue Hills Quarry on Thursday looking for some smokey quartz. I didn't find much unfortunately - still great to get away from the city for the day in the fresh air.

I stopped in at Sapphire Bend on the way home. Every hole (even the largest) still had about a foot of smelly stagnant freezing cold water in it. There also seemed to be a lot of active logging going on close by along Sapphire Bend Road and I couldn't get access to an area that I had a bit of success in last year.

Does anyone know when they will likely finish the logging on Sapphire Bend Road and move on?

Cheers

 

[Brumble-Gum]

Ring the Forestry in Bathurst, they will tell you.

 

[4hughhh]

Hello Everyone.

Going to try fossicking for the first time within the next few days at Black Springs, Sapphire Bend.
Any tips for the area or fossicking in general would be much appreciated, mainly going to look for sapphire.
Thank you!

 

[fossickeract]

Ha take you skies I recon, Black Springs be very cold at the moment clay be frozen in the holes my tip leave it till October!

 

[rileymcsmiley]

If the clay is frozen you could check out porters Retreat which is just down the road and dig in the creek. A lot more gravelly in the creek bed and has stones to offer if you can brave the water. Hopefully the creek itself isn't frozen :lol:

 

[Wentywildman]

Hey all, new to the site.
Ive recently taken up fossicking as a new hobby since Ive collected rock and fossils since I was knee high to a grass hopper. Been trying my luck out near sapphire bend at black springs. So far only one sapphire but I do have a couple of questionable finds that I would greatly appreciate a keen eye on to identify the big yellow/clear ones have a real glassy waxy shine to them. I was thinking zircon but I could be optimisticly bias. And the small green one sapphire?? Or peridot?

 

[Wentywildman]

 

[fossickeract]

Sorry to rain on your enthusiasm but looks like quartz crystal to me.

The clear and orange are zircons from nearby they are heavy and will centre in your sieve.

 

[Wentywildman]

Oh well you win some you lose some. Knew it was a long shot. Thanks for the quick reply and the photo, gives me something to aim at. They were both in the top sieve with not a lot in it and they just stood out from all the other quartz I had come across that day.
The small one, looks yellowish in the photo but is more green in real life with natural light was dead centre but may have just got stuck in the mesh.
Thanks again

 

[Conan]

Hi All

I will be driving through Oberon on Wednesday and thought I stop down at the Bend for a dig. Just wondering if anyone has been out there recently and whether the ground is dry or wet. There was a bit of rain out there last week and it snowed over the weekend.