Some finds from Lowmead

[Lefty]

Might be a new publican - unless something has changed without me hearing about it, you can dig on what would be the northern side of Clarkes road without needing permission. So long as you are at the actual dig site and do not cross the little creek that the track branching off the main roads leads down to and through.

The property owner has passed me many times while I've been digging and never asked me to leave.

Good to hear someone found something anyway.

 

[rotor]

That's what I thought ..... northern side all good!

 

[toogoom trio]

hi guys
i coped and pasted this from the SE QLD & NE NSW Fossicking group on facebook

The Gladstone And Bundaberg Gem Clubs Have Been Approached By The Farmer That Owns The Lowmeed FOSSICKING Area And Asked People To Stay Within The Area And Not To Dig Beside The Main Road As There Not Filling In There Holes. And people are cutting through fences into private property and leaving rubish. These areas are getting less and less available because of misuse please do the right thing in our FOSSICKING areas before there are none remember this is a privately owned FOSSICKING area and can be closed at anytime.

i was there 3 weeks ago and a loader of some sort has push in alot of the front holes near clarks road and back about 50 meters

 

[Eldorado]

hi guys
i coped and pasted this from the SE QLD & NE NSW Fossicking group on facebook

The Gladstone And Bundaberg Gem Clubs Have Been Approached By The Farmer That Owns The Lowmeed FOSSICKING Area And Asked People To Stay Within The Area And Not To Dig Beside The Main Road As There Not Filling In There Holes. And people are cutting through fences into private property and leaving rubish. These areas are getting less and less available because of misuse please do the right thing in our FOSSICKING areas before there are none remember this is a privately owned FOSSICKING area and can be closed at anytime.

i was there 3 weeks ago and a loader of some sort has push in alot of the front holes near clarks road and back about 50 meters

This is a serious concern,thanks for posting Toogoom trio.The fact that the farmer has approached the clubs but not closed the area says that this might be the last chance.I very much doubt it would be the gem clubs doing the damage though.The bad element will keep doing the wrong thing and we will all pay the price.I hope to be able to visit Lowmead one day.

 

[Lefty]

Bad news there There simply aren't enough fossicking areas as it is, we can't afford to be losing the few that do exist. People leaving rubbish lying around the site is just unacceptable. Unfortunately, it may not stop since as Eldorado says, clubs are well aware of the ramifications and tend to be mindful of leaving the site in good order - it's more often the general public that does it.

The main road has an underground telephone line beside it and that's another issue.

 

[LONEWOLF]

And the List of Closed Fossicking Sites will only grow Bigger..... The way I see it , We Have 2 Battles... One with the "Law Makers", and one with ''Ourselves"

And I am in no way saying that We, Responsible Fossickers are to blame... It's the Other D^&*heads out there that's the Issue...

LoneWolf...

 

[kp-mitch]

Hi Everyone have been reading all of the posts re Lowmead, still not right through but appreciate the informative reading. Sad that there are individuals leaving their rubbish everywhere, they just have no respect for anything or anyone.

We're not into the faceting side, even tho you have some pretty one's there, we love the raw crystal look. We've only seen the clean one's in the Crystal Shops & we're hoping to go for a look at Lowmead when it cools down a tad. Can you please let us know what a just found dirty crystal will look like? Just not sure what we should be looking for.

Thnx heaps
Katie

 

[silver]

Here you go kp.
it's a start at least.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=222852#p222852

 

[Lefty]

Hi Katie, welcome to the forum.

The thing that usually stands out when a quartz crystal is covered in dirt is the six-sided shape, a well-formed one is pretty unmistakable even when the surface is too dirty to see into. Clarity can be hard to assess until it's well cleaned up. Scroll back a few pages on this thread and I think you will find a bunch of photos of some smoky quartz crystals just pulled out of the ground.

Cheers

 

[Daggy]

G'day everyone.

My family and I are from South Kolan, Near Bundy.
I've read this entire post and have been to Lowmead four times now. We've found some great amethyst and cytrine crystals but they are rather small.
We havn't found any good smokey quartz yet but have some really interesting large combination crystals with a mix of amethyst, smokey, clear and cytrine.

I've been hoping to meet some other fossickers out there but it must be too hot for everyone. I'm sure we drank ten litres of water today between me and the missus and three kids.

I'll post some pics of our finds tomorrow but I don't have anything as good as some of the smokeys you blokes are getting, does anyone think that the upper or lower areas have different crystals or is it just the luck of the draw. I'm wondering because the undug ground is towards the creek and we are digging lower than the "parking area".

Hope to see some of you out there and will appreciate any advice you can give.

Take care
Darren

 

[kp-mitch]

Thnx heaps Lefty & Silver for the information, appreciate it, have gr8 day

 

[Daggy]

Tried to take some pics this morning, looks like I need to practice and wait for a sunny day.
Do you blokes use macro and no flash?

Thanks
Darren

 

[Lefty]

Tried to take some pics this morning, looks like I need to practice and wait for a sunny day.
Do you blokes use macro and no flash?

Thanks
Darren

Gday Darren.

The best crystals at Lowmead seem to be near the road. I've been right down around the creek and although the quartz band is shallow - only a foot or so down - it doesn't seem to contain many good crystals. Not where I've dug at least. That's not to say that they might not be there somewhere down the bottom, they quite likely are. I just haven't ever come across another spot as good as up near the road.

Cheers

 

[silver]

Hey Daggy, I usually just use sunshine for my photos.
Use the search function on the forum for Lowmead lowmead, and you should get all the threads that have ever made mention of the place, just have to read them all then ,.... just follow topic them all, that way they will be easy to find again using the topics I'm following tab.

 

[Daggy]

Thanks for the advice fellas.
I'll try again when the sun comes back out and might experiment with different colour backgrounds.

I'll dig my next hole closer to the road Lefty, but at the moment I keep finding more pockets of crystals as I expand outwards. I can't bring myself to abandon my first diggings.

Darren

 

[Opal finder]

I know the farmer who owns the property, I have the block next to his,and people have been digging on my property as well with out permission!! The farmer is NOT happy with holes that have not been filled in, he has lost stock and had to put them down due to falling into unfilled holes!! This is his lively hood and now seriously considering closing ALL access to this property as damage is becoming out of control due to knowbody filling in their holes!!!!

 

[Lefty]

I know the farmer who owns the property, I have the block next to his,and people have been digging on my property as well with out permission!! The farmer is NOT happy with holes that have not been filled in, he has lost stock and had to put them down due to falling into unfilled holes!! This is his lively hood and now seriously considering closing ALL access to this property as damage is becoming out of control due to knowbody filling in their holes!!!!

I can sympathize Opal finder. However, this is not a new situation - I first went there as a kid over 30 years ago and the place looked the same back then, lots of holes everywhere, just like the gemfields. So holes everywhere isn't exactly new, it's been like that since probably the late 70's.

Also, in all the years I've been going there I can't honestly recall seeing any livestock in the immediate area of the diggings, which is only a small area perhaps 150 metres wide with a fence on either side but nothing on the road front. I can't honestly recall ever having seen any tracks or cowpats and as I said, that section of Clarke's road is unfenced so what would be keeping them in I'm not sure. Has a new fence been erected since I was there last? (I haven't been there for probably six months or more). I'm not saying they aren't there - I'm just surprised that I've never seen them or any evidence of them at the unfenced dig site.

Which block is yours? Is it that small one with the long driveway that goes from Clarke's road down toward the little creek?

If people are digging on your block without permission then you have every right to be angry and every legal right to ask them to leave if you find them there. It is especially galling when some people use the place as a rubbish dump instead of taking their rubbish with them. So I can understand your frustration.

However, this statement....

damage is becoming out of control due to knowbody filling in their holes!!!!

.......seems to imply that large numbers of unfilled holes at the site are only a relatively recent occurrence. I don't know how long you've been there but I can most certainly assure you that the small area in question has been a collection of hundreds of shallow open holes for the past several decades. There is not much virgin ground left at the site and most people simply dig in pre-existing holes.

If the owner wants to withdraw permission for people to dig there, then that is his right to do so. I was going to suggest that perhaps the owner could possibly sell that small bomb-cratered piece of acreage to the mines department for conversion into a fossicking area but to be honest there isn't much ground there not already worked.

 

[Daggy]

Spot on Lefty.

Seems like a passive aggressive post from Opal. There are no new fences and there is no fence between Opals block and the farmers.
It looks like opal has a driveway going to a 3.1 ha block that is down at the creek where no one would want to dig anyway.

Before I leave, I collapse all undercuts and backfill the hole as I follow the pockets just incase an animal walks past and has an undercut let go on them. If a cow can fall into a hole so easily then the the creek bank would be a major concern.

If people are digging on your place Opal, it would be because there is no fence and they just don't know.
My kids allways get a wave from the farmer and he could have chased us off last Sunday if there was a real worry.

I'm calling BS on this one.

Daggy

 

[silver]

Yeah, farmer always has a friendly wave for us and us for him too, and a quick chat with his Mrs if she's got a few moments spare, they always seem pretty busy out there though.

 

[Lefty]

Sounds like it might have been Opal - not the grazier - who apparently approached the Gladstone and Bundaberg lapidary clubs with threats of withdrawing permission. Like you say Daggy, if it were a real concern of the actual landholder he would probably have approached you last Sunday when you were there. The owner could have withdrawn permission at any time over the past few decades, why is it suddenly a concern only now?

I've always wondered just how many cattle actually fall down man-made holes as opposed to down creek banks, wombat holes, over logs or rocks etc. Reward designated fossicking area on the gemfields is a fair old sized area with hundreds of current small miners claims and countless thousands of old diggings stretching back over a century. It's a shared lease between the Queensland government (mines department) and Kielambete station who run their cattle in there - they can't lose too many or they wouldn't be there.

Daggy is right Opal - I only knew your block existed because I happened to run a topography map programme over the area. There has never been a fence and people have been going there for decades. It's a bit unrealistic to expect them to know when an invisible boundary has been drawn through the area. In fact, I'm not a lawyer but it might be more difficult to take someone for trespassing when there is no clear demarcation between your block and the adjoining one where general permission has long existed.

If I were you I would erect a fence and put up signs, that way you've clearly identified your property.