Staggy Creek

[Wwoofa]

Staggy Creek is a public fossicking area known for black tourmaline, topaz & diamonds. The name of this location might make you think the area is a creek .... although there is a creek nearby, the actual fossicking location is a treed hillside.

Staggy Creek is located approx 25km from Inverell on the Copeton Dam Road (Fossickers Way). Go west from Inverell on the Gwydir Hwy for about 4km & turn left onto Copeton Dam Road. Go about 21km and you will see a nice new gate on the right (it is signposted). Go thru the gate onto a track and follow it for approx 1km and you will arrive at a small dam at the top of a treed hill. GPS coords of the dam are 6697706N 56295630E (WGS84). The track is fine for 2wd vehicles although some care needs to be taken when you get near the end of the track.

This place has changed quite a bit over the years. Several years ago you went thru an old gate at the bottom of the paddock and followed a different track to another location. This was the original fossicking area but this spot is now on private property & fenced. The general area has been explored for diamonds at various times and I believe this was done again recently by Cluff Resources.

The soil is quite sandy so digging/sieving is not too difficult. The dam is a good source of water for wet sieving. Black tourmaline (often thin needles) can also be specked from the gullies.

I really can't offer much advise on where to dig around here, however, Topcat recently posted a picture of a diamond found at Staggy Creek ...

[smg id=5176 type=preview align=center width=400 caption="Topcat's Staggy Creek Diamond"]

and added this advise ....

"Yes you can find a diamond at Staggy Creek but you have to work hard for it and they are small though I was told that someone once found a 3 ct stone. Anyway our little stone is roughly 3mm by 2mm. I'm not taking it out of the box to weigh it because if I lost it my wife would be unkind to me. You need a very fine seive - mosquito mesh size - wtih very high sides because the little blighters are very bouncy. Shake too hard and apparently they'll ping past your ear! The diamond we found is very small but pretty - I provided the digging muscle and my wife provided the patience. BTW if you are not finding topaz and/or tourmaline you are not digging in the right spot."

[smg id=119 type=preview align=center width=400 caption="Staggy Creek Dam"]

[smg id=205 type=preview align=center width=400 caption="Black Tourmaline Crystal"]

[JLB]

"Yes you can find a diamond at Staggy Creek but you have to work hard for it

Well that lets me out.  But I've never considered fossicking for another reason.  I'd be throwing away the good stuff.  IE, saw some bags of sapphire rough, and it looked just like the blue metal stones they use for a bitumen road.     

[angel777]

Hi, I am going up to staggy creek in a few weeks please tell me were I can find the picture of top cats diamond I need to see what they look like there. thanks mate.

[Buch Metter]

Found a nice champagne zircon at Staggy Creek many years back and was cut into a really beautiful 1.3ct  stone.  It felt like diamond, was highly waxy in the fingers, so it was exciting at the time.

[Findem]

See my blog on Staggy Creek. Follow the link below and use the search box.