 Peter Brown examining a newly uncovered sapphire |
Rummage through the rocks and pebbles around Rubyvale and you might just turn up a small fortune. Here in outback Queensland, the streets are paved, not with gold, but with emeralds, rubies and sapphires. Share a yarn with the drifters and fossickers who came for a weekend and stayed for life.
Peter Brown turned up in Rubvale in a smoking VW combi almost thirty years ago, found enough gems to keep him interested and has gone on to build up one of the most successful gem extraction and finishing businesses in town. We go underground with Peter as he digs out a huge bucketful of ore, sifts it in his huge rig and presents us with an enormous rough sapphire that keeps him smiling the rest of the afternoon.
Not everyone is a winner in Rubyvale. There are great tales of lost fortunes, swindlers and scallywags, and many of these tales are told at the local pub. Built from rough-hewn logs with a roaring fire, it turns out surprisingly good tucker. If the pioneering, bush sprirt of outback Australia is still alive anywhere, you’ll find it in Rubyvale.
Today, the so-called grey nomads drift in with their caravans (trailers) fossick for a while and move on. But many linger, bitten by the incurable Lust for Dust.
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