Fossil and Mineral Museum at Bathurst

[Aussie Sapphire]

Just back from a trip to Bathurst and Oberon to visit family.  We did take the opportunity to visit the Fossil/Mineral Museum in Bathurst - a very good display.


https://museumsbathurst.com.au/australian-fossil-and-mineral-museum-see-do

[colza]

Looks a great setup. With the Albert Chapman collection coming in early June it will be certainly even more well worth visiting. That collection is stunning, some of the gem exhibits mesmerising in their unique beauty.


Cheers,
colza 

[Aussie Sapphire]

It was definitely worth a look.


There was some of the Albert Chapman collection on display.


Obviously it is a mineral display rather than a gemstone display but was a bit surprised at the lack of Australian gems on show.  I counted one (exactly 1) sapphire in the whole museum and it was quite an unimpressive dogtooth from Inverell.  Not much opal - shown as an example of a silicate mineral but the different types of material available in Australia not really explored.


Was a great breadth of material and well shown with lots of explanatory info.  The amber display with magnifier was very good.  The fossil display was very interesting.


But have seen more interesting specimens of tin and sapphire for eg. at the Emmaville Museum - not a fair comparison as that one obviously has a very different focus.  But if you are interested in Australian gems as opposed to minerals, Emmaville very good to see.


cheers
Leah