Some finds from Lowmead

[Wrasse42]

Thanks Lefty, I am heading to Diglum Creek tomorrow to try my luck. It's 56 km from Gladstone, west on Dawson highway, left onto The Monto road, right onto tablelands road and then left on to Rowanlea Rd, takes you down to the creek. The geological survey map I found from 1901 is very detailed and precise as I checked it on Google earth.
Even has a cross section of the ground showing were the crystals are found. And they are identified as Androsite Garnets, doesn't say what colour. The ground is layers of decomposed granite, limestone, wollastonite with seams of epidote. Sounds very interesting.

 

[Bundy Ben]

Dilgum creek is the main NW tributary of the Boyne Lefty, runs all the way back up to Kroombit down into the dam.
Good luck Wrasse.
I am heading back up to that property near Lowmead tomorrow to see if I can't track down something.

 

[ktmman]

Hey Ben,good luck on the private property tomorrow,I've heard of at least 3 properties around there with crystals on them.
Just a matter of how deep you have to dig.

 

[Lefty]

Good luck Wrasse and Ben

We desperately need some designated fossicking areas in our region. I'm with family in Mareeba at present and we went out to Mount Gibson yesterday to try and score some of. The nice topaz I was shown there the other day - colourless, blue, citrine- coloured, pale gold and a very nice aquamarine shade. We failed to find any of the big ones like the bloke showed up (he had some between 60 and 100 carats, still in the original Crystal shape so there was no mistaking that it was topaz not Quartz) but we got a significant amount of cutters.Wont cut any really big stones but some should finish at at least 4 carats, so not too bad. I found a vug filled with smokey Quartz
Crystals but it was in solid rock and while I managed to extract about two dozen crstals with a screwdriver, the biggest and best ones were Impossible to remove - I could even reach into the cavity and touch them but I couldnt get them, dammit!

Lowmead is probably and ideal place for a designated fossicking area but since setting one up would require a lot of negotiation between government and landowner, I doubt it would ever happen. Most designated fossicking areas seem to have been former mining leases(in the case of Mount Gibson it was tin, we actually found some tin crystals) so I guess that was easier. Here are lots of gold leases in our region, who knows what other things they dig up but simply feed straight through the ore crusher?

 

[Lefty]

Bloody autocorrect!

 

[Bundy Ben]

Good to hear you have some cutters Lefty.
I hear you about Lowmead, done right, the landowner could make some good pocket money. One fella we are talking to up there would do it... Just got to find something of interest on his place. We spent another 12hrs up there today walking ridges, creeks checking granite caps and generally battling thick re-growth.
We found one tiny patch, got all excited and heavily prospected the whole area with not one more trace. That was on a ridge top with no change in country Rock, no seams, no vugs, just a random 5 pieces sitting in the middle of nothing.
Their May be a cutter in one bit and something was better than nothing. Have another lead South of Lowmead, be interesting to see that place. If they are crystals there, that would make an area apx 25km x 7km with potential.

To many places, not enough days.

 

[Dedicated luck]

I really need to start getting into this site abit more! Haha im on a lowmead patch now thats producing small flat pieces of a cavity coverd in amythest basically flat geods sorta looking havnt seen anything like em before this spot... as for diglum im heading up that way tommorow to a chalcedony spot i got told today! Might pop in and have a kick around. We also are on a privert property in kooroombittops area under strict instructions but its all decomposed granite.. gold and copper country. Quartz everywhere have found a small piece of Azurite in the sluice. Zircons too.. i get in trouble for taking me eye off yellow haha but i swear i see some flashes of red and green going past! I have a few photos of crystals i found out there possibly barite i think.. also small perfectly terminated clear crystals. I like the looks of the land outpast many peaks.. has to be deposits not too far off biggenden witch has produced world class crystals! Got a map to old overburden and wast dump ing area thats nexts fridays mission.

 

[Bundy Ben]

G'day DL,
Sounds like you have been poking around the area for awhile. Would love to see some zircon photos, or any gemstones
Biggenden has some amazing crystals but access to the main site is out as far as I know. There may be some private property over the old areas that might produce. Best of luck.

 

[Dedicated luck]

I didn't end up poking up the valley today, headed out to Mt Larcom, im no geoligist but i struggle to understand why there isn't anything worth of interest in the area.. apart from gold! Iv located many shafts on the mountain before both vertical and horizontal shafts, and also one small crystal witch has ever since kept me wondering.. the area if full of granite and is a volcanic plug. I went off track thru the bush and found the higher i got the harder the granite got while down low it seemed to be decomposing and alot softer and breacks up in your hand sorta granite, not sure if this is two different ages?? But the lower stuff seemed to contain quartz while the higher stuff didnt. I grabbed a few specs nothing special at all but just more or less an idear of whats around..ill take the photos of them tommorow and few more of the area that i cant upload via phone

 

[Lefty]

Same DL - every single mountain range and peak in the region is the remains of either intrusive magma or extrusive volcanics. It's 1200 km from Gladstone to Mareeba and you drive by the same geology for that entire distance yet there is not a single fossicking area in the whole stretch until you get all the way up here to Mount Gibson and Mount Surprise. The chances of that whole stretch containing nothing at all would seem to be about zero to me.

Got a book at home by Tim Flannery, the biologist. In it he recounts how when he was doing his degree in the 1960s, it was an embarrassing time to be a paleontologist in Australia - there was simply nothing worthy of note. No one could figure out why Australia had almost no fossil record. Fast forward to today and we now know that Australia actually has a pretty rich fossil record, it's just that there weren't enough people out looking in the right places.

Why are there so many things around the Cloncurry region? One, because they are there. Two, because in the wake of the discovery of the largest mineral deposit of its kind ever discovered at Mount Isa, geologists scoured the hills and creeks of the region looking for more - the boots have been on the ground in those areas whereas in our area they have not, not to my knowledge at least.

Gemstones are elusive little buggers and the less that people have been out looking in an area, the more chance that what actually is there will simply remain hidden.

 

[Lefty]

Hope it produces for you Ben, good luck!

I completely agree with you re the property owners making some pocket money out of allowing fossicker on their land - unfortunately, I think the specter of public liability has put paid to almost all of that. We live in a day and age where people can and will sue for anything and everything and win their case even when it was their own fault. Allowing people onto their land to fossick for a small fee is inviting disaster for the property owner when some clown trips over their own bootlaces, breaks their ankle and then successfully sues the property owner for damages. Legally, I don't think there is any such thing as "enter at your own risk" anymore.

You can well understand the reluctance of landholders to allow people in and until the law is changed so as to make people responsible for their own actions, I can't see things changing

 

[Dedicated luck]

Accidently posted twice and cant figure out how to delete so had to edit!, so this is it haha better then a space.. seemed rude

 

[silver]

Going up for a look tomorrow, will wait at turn into fossicking area at 10am for 10 minutes(Lowmead) if anyone is up there and wants too catch up.
Cheers Silver.

 

[Bundy Ben]

Going up for a look tomorrow, will wait at turn into fossicking area at 10am for 10 minutes(Lowmead) if anyone is up there and wants too catch up.
Cheers Silver.

Would live to but work beckons me for the next 10 days. Back to night time coin detecting for me until my next RDOs.
Best of luck Silver.

 

[silver]

Thanks BB, might have to leave a little stash up there some where while I'm there.
Give some directions out at a later date.
Be first in best dressed then !

 

[Lefty]

Good luck Silver

I was entertaining the idea of going down on Saturday but I'll have just gotten home from a 1200km drive and I really do have plenty of faceting rough to play with anyway. Fresh out of amethyst though so I'll have to head back down toLowmead in the next couple of weeks.

 

[ktmman]

Same here,if I could sneak away from work,I would so be up there having a dig. Good luck tomorrow.

 

[silver]

Got up there(lowmead) and found,................. absolutely bl00dy nothing (ha),....... but I did leave a little something behind, full house for someone to be able to find,.... I will now have to put a little bit of thought into how and when I will give out the clues as to the treasures where-abouts and how to find it.

 

[Bundy Ben]

Haha, sounds like a challenge!!! Pity you didn't find anything though... But that's why its called fossicking not finding, better luck next time & await your clues...hahaa.

 

[silver]

I might make it so that only PA members will be able to get the clues by putting them in the members only section once everyone knows that there is a buried treasure up there(somewhere),... that way anyone who is interested will be on an even footing for the starters lineup(so to speak),.. luckily I took a photo of what I've buried, so I will put that photo up when I can.