|
| The gem displays at
Gemseeker's Souvenirs, Anakie |
Anakie (including Rubyvale and Sapphire)
The heart of some of Queensland's best gem-fossicking
country.
Anakie, Rubyvale and Sapphire are, as the latter two names
suggest, gem-fossicking settlements. As such they are
characterised by the kind of social neglect which typically
accompanies a monomaniacal preoccupation with prospective
wealth. The streets, the gardens, the houses, the social
activities, the sense of community are also-rans when
compared to the effort invested in delving for gemstones. It
is indicative of the harshness of the area that electricity
only arrived in 1977.
Anakie is located 305 km west of Rockhampton on the
Capricorn Highway and 951 km from Brisbane. It is, by any
generous assessment, a non-event of a town. It has nothing
apart from the hotel-motel, a railway station, a few houses
(most of which have signs inviting visitors to come and
inspect the gems) and a few unimportant roads.
It is said that the name comes from a local Aboriginal
word meaning 'two hills'. The first find in the area
occurred in 1875 when Archibald John Richardson found
zircons at Retreat Creek. The following year a prospector
found sapphires in the region and by 1881 commercial mining
operations had commenced.
The arrival of the railway line in 1884 gave the loosely
established settlement some focus and by 1887 Anakie was
proclaimed a township.
In 1902 (the year the Anakie Hotel was built) the Anakie
Sapphire Fields were officially proclaimed a mining area.
Over the next thirty years the three settlements of Anakie,
Sapphire and Rubyvale grew to meet the demands of the miners
who, when the prices were high, poured into the area.
A boom occurred from 1906 when the gold miners from
Clermont moved west to try their luck. In 1907 over £40 000
worth of gems were mined. World War 1 saw an abatement of
activity but the end of the war saw renewed interest on the
fields. In 1922 the Queensland Government stepped in to
stabilise the sales of blue sapphires.
After 1935 the fields began to decline so that by 1953
there were only 21 full-time miners working in the area.
However it was during this period that the Black Star of
Queensland was found. Weighing in at a remarkable 1165
carats it was the largest black-star sapphire in the world.
In 1938 a twelve-year-old local named Roy Spencer found the
huge sapphire near Reward Claim. He took it home and his
father, not recognising its value, left it at the back door.
The fields experienced a new lease of life from tourism
in the 1960s. However the big operators arrived in the early
1970s, with heavy machinery in tow. They started to exploit
the fields commercially, selling the best gemstones to
dealers from South-East Asia. The frail romance of
fossicking did not sit well with mass production and a
sometimes-bitter antagonism developed between small-time
miners and machine operators. Today the fields are a true
combination of interests with individual operators, tourists
and companies all vying for the beautiful stones.
Anakie describes itself as 'the Gateway to the Gemfields'
and the important gemfields are appropriately located at
Sapphire and Rubyvale.
The entrepreneurial spirit of Rubyvale and Sapphire is
emblazoned on the trees that are passed on the way into
town. They are hung with signs advertising such exotic
places as 'Luke's Sapphires', 'Old Mick's Gem Shop' (which
is located in the marvellously named Goanna Flats Road),
'Pat's Gems', 'Rainbow Treasure', 'Cut-a-Slice Lapidary
Supplies', 'Ransom Mine - Find Your Own Sapphires' - all
promoting themselves as the place to visit while on the
gemfields.
Sapphire is effectively nothing more than a playing
field, a caravan park, a few isolated homesteads, a general
store and a few shops selling gems. It is another non–event
of a town with a wonderfully temporary and transient feel
suggesting that it really should only exist for the next few
minutes.
Between Rubyvale and Sapphire are the large-scale
sapphire operations where heavy equipment converts the
countryside into a bizarre moonscape.
Rubyvale is a slightly more substantial settlement with a
small shopping centre and a pub.
|
| Pat's Gems - Dig Your Own
Sapphires, at Sapphire |
Things to see:
The Bobby Dazzler Mine
One of Rubyvale's major attractions is the Bobby Dazzler
Mine (located beside the road into town) where visitors can
go underground to search for gemstones.
Gemseeker's Souvenirs
There is a very good and entertaining book on Anakie and the
Gemfields titled Anakie: The Sapphire Fields of Central
Queensland which has been written and published by Walda
Scholler who, with her husband Erich, runs Gemseeker's
Souvenirs at Anakie. The Schollers can advise people on good
places for fossicking and arrange tours of the mining areas.
Australian Businesses for sale
Caravan Parks for sale
Motels for sale
Hotels for sale
Broadwalk Business Brokers
Businesses for Sale in Anakie: Buy or Sell Hotels, Motels, Caravan Parks, Bed & Breakfast,
Pubs, Wine Bars, Restaurants, Cafe, English Tea Rooms, Coffee Shops,
Deli, Catering Business, Pubs, Bars, Sandwich Bars, Pizza Delivery,
Bakeries, Hot Food Take-away, Fish & Chips, Petrol & Service Stations,
Australian Businesses for sale, Car Sales, Motor & Transport, Car/Van
Hires, Newsagents, Dry Cleaners, Salons, General Stores, Retail Stores,
Post Office, Printers, Convenience Stores, Clothes shop, Hair Dressers,
Beauty Salon, Fruit Markets, Butchers, Florist, Card & Gift shop, Sports
shop, Book Shops, Care Agency, Pharmacy, Tool-Hardware & DIY shops, Pet
Shops, Auto Mechanical, Auto Parts & Accessories,
Bakery Businesses for sale , Motel sales, caravan park sales, Hotel
sales, Business sales, Bar for sale, Juice Bar for sale,
Beauty Salon for sale, Bike and Motorcycle Businesses for sale ,
Australian Businesses for sale, Blinds and Shutters Businesses for sale , Boat Business for sale ,
Book Shop , Bread Run, Building and Construction , Butcher Shop,
Café Business for sale, Car Dealerships for sale, Car Rental
Business for sale , Car Yard, Cleaning Business for sale, Computer
Business for sale, Childcare Centre for sale, Confectionary
Business for sale, Convenience Store for sale, Deli Businesses for
sale , Distribution Businesses for sale , Earth Moving Businesses
for sale , Businesses for sale , Engineering Businesses for sale ,
Export/Import Businesses for sale , Fitness Centres for sale,
Florist for sale, Franchise Businesses for sale , Fruit and Veg
Shop for sale, Function Centre for sale, Funeral Parlour for sale,
Furniture Businesses for sale , Garden Equipment Businesses for
sale , General Store s for sale, Gift Shop for sale, Hairdressing
salons for sale , Hardware Businesses for sale , Hire Businesses for
sale , Businesses for sale, Motels for sale, Caravan Parks for sale,
hotels for sale, Ice Cream Businesses for sale , Juice Bar for sale, Laundrette ' s for sale, Lawn Mowing Businesses for sale , Magazine
Businesses for sale , Manufacturing Businesses for sale , Marine
Businesses for sale , Menswear Businesses for sale , Milk Run 's
for sale, Mixed Businesses for sale , Mobile Businesses for sale ,
News agency Businesses for sale , Pawnbroker Businesses for sale ,
Preschool for sale, Pest Control Businesses for sale ,Business for
sale Pet Shop, Plumbing Businesses for sale , Post Office for sale ,
Removalist Businesses for sale, Restaurants for sale, Roadhouses for
sale, Rubbish Removal Businesses for sale , Rural Supplies
Businesses for sale , Sales and Distribution Businesses for sale ,
Security Businesses for sale , Service Station for sale, Shoe Shop
for sale, Supermarkets for sale, Takeaway Businesses for sale ,
Taxi Businesses for sale , Transport Businesses for sale , Vending
Machine Businesses for sale , Wholesale Businesses for sale,
Wrecking Yard for sale in Anakie.
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