Hartz range.....something?

[Lefty]

Test post..

[Lefty]

Ah good, that works.

We took a trip around the territory last year. It wasn't a fossicking trip, just a holiday but as we neared Alice Springs I suggested that we stop for a day or two at Gemtree, which I had previously heard of. Next day, dad and I headed out to the field - not the mud tank diggings, the other one. I'm not really sure where we ended up to be honest, it was quite near to the base of the mountains themselves.

The above photo is some of what we picked up in a gulley. We filled a large coffee jar in a couple of hours. I'm really not sure what the clear material is. Quartz? Topaz? These was quite a lot of it lying around. A fair bit of it was permeated with black needles.





The garnets were there aplenty but everything we picked up looks the same - badly cracked and shattered. It's a shame really, they have a beautiful colour.



Anyone have any idea what the colourless material might be?

[mehoose]

black needles sounds like Tourmalinated quartz./ Tourmaline Quartz

[Lefty]

Ah, ok. Was thinking some of the stuff might be topaz - not sure how to tell the difference. Certainly was no shortage of it lying on the surface in this little gulley.

[Butts]

Hi Lefty

I saw a lot of tourmaline quartz at HR but never heard of or ever found topaz so pretty safe call it is the quartz.

Cheers Butts

[The Rock Hunter]

wow some realy nice peaces in there well done 

[Lefty]

Cheers Butts and Rock hunter. I did have some bigger pieces but I think dad ended up with them. Beautiful, crytal-clear stuff. We never found any zircons although they did have them in the office of the Gemtree caravan park. Unlike the zircons from our central Queensland gemfield and like eveything else from Hartz range, they were cracked and shattered, though they were very large so I guess there still would have been decent cutters among them.

Seems unusual how so many different gemstones from the same field show the same sort of shattering - some kind of geological process perhaps?

[Lefty]

What I meant to say was, some sort of catastrophic geological process - geological processes are obviously occuring all the time

[Butts]

I guess so Lefty though I am not a geologist nor really understand all that side of it. What i did notice though living at Harts Range is just how small and localized many different gems were. Apart from garnet which was wide spread all the other gems appeared in small pockets. Local aboriginals would often make a 'find" of something a bit different (amethyst, citrine, hessonite garnet and sphene spring to mind but once they all started digging they would empty the area pretty quick.

On the other hand it may just mean there is still a lot of stuff still out there waiting to be found.
 

[Lefty]

How long did you live at Hartz range for Butts?

[Butts]

3.5 years Lefty from 88-91

[drids]

My wife and I have been to Gemtree a couple of times and really enjoyed it.
We have collected some nice garnets and zircon's. We have had a few cut and set into jewellery.
Came up quite nicely thank you. The Zircon's are quite clear with a hint of pink to them. We have only done the organised tours as we don't know our way around the area and don't have a 4wd.

Looks like you have some nice stones Lefty.

[Gibbo75]

Nice finds Lefty. I was thinking of a trip to HR soon but after coming back to Weilmoringle from Glen Innes and  finding how hot it has gotten in the 3 weeks I was away I think I'll wait till next year..   

[kewrater]

greetings lefty. quartz has an uneven FRACTURE and the crystal faces, if it has any left, have lines ACROSS the length. topaz has a perfect CLEAVEGE [NO, not the decollete type!], smooth as sheet glass, and crystals have lines running ALONG the crystal. waterworn topaz will usually have no flat faces left, but are often cracked or chipped and show their cleavage layers. a ten or twenty power magnifier will help.

[Butts]

Just as a mention when living at HR i used to carry a heavy metal rake (the old type) with a metal handle. In summer after the storms i would go specking on the heaps left by people. After I had finished i would pull the top of the heaps with the rake and wait for the next storm so had plenty of specking to keep me busy. I rarely dug a stone at HR but had some nice cutters when I left.

Water or lack of it is the problem so people wash their stone in muddy water and when it dries it leaves a stain on it. Most of the zircons I found missed by fossickers were the darker stones particularly the purple and brownish ones which tend to look like the magnatite etc that is all though Mud Tank.

Also found that those who missed one ussually missed a lot more so some heaps were really worth checking regularly.

Great place for variety if you have the time to spend looking.

Cheers Butts