September's location is the
Nullamanna Public Fossicking Area.Nullamanna is a public fossicking area on Frazers Creek. Go about 20km north-east from Inverell on the road to Emmaville to the small town of Nullamanna. Just after the "centre of town" there is a sign-posted track on the right leading to the fossicking area (and the rubbish tip) along the creek. If you cross the bridge over Frazers Creek then you missed the turnoff. GPS coords are UTM 6718648N 56328946E (WGS84). The track is usually fine for 2wd vehicles.
This area is one of the few accessible places on Frazers Creek that was not commercially mined but it has been well worked by fossickers for many years. In the early days the local council used to dig the wash up and pile it beside the creek. These days it's much more difficult. There have been reports of very good finds (>10 carat stones) but mostly after a significant amount of work .... like digging down a few feet thru clay & boulders
You would probably need to invest a few days here to have any success but if you are after larger stones & have a good back then this could be very worthwhile.
You will need a full compliment of sapphire hunting weapons ... sieves, buckets, picks, shovels etc. A long crowbar would also probably be useful. As the soil has clay in it then it's worthwhile to soak the wash before sieving.
Link to Capt Mendoza's very excellent article ...http://jewellerypirate.com.au/blog/nullamanna-fossicking-reserve/Link to original ALF topic ...http://aussielapidaryforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=168.0Link to the World of Shiny Stuff ...http://fossicking.daruthe.com/fossicking.php?type=location&id=70Link to Whereis ...http://www.whereis.com/nsw/nullamanna-2360Some pictures ...Frazers Creek running thru the Fossicking Reserve ...
Frazers Creek with a lots more water (photo by Jamo) ...
Old Building near the Entrance ...
Sapphires found by Jamo (largest 3.1ct) ...
