A creek, a pan, a fortune might be found.

With a rare weekend free, we accepted an invitation with geologist friends to try and find our fortune at a public fossicking area somewhere near Tumbarumba, west of the Snowy Mountains.  We were lured not only by the promise of rubies and sapphires, but also a picturesque camp beside a pleasant creek.

And what a wonderful weekend we had - with plenty of reward for our efforts.

We were all keen to get out under canvas again.  The boys were eager to sleep in their swags, and soon found a spot that wasn't too lumpy.  The little supervisor (aka Dylis) was thrilled that our camp was in State Forest - so she could come along for the fun too.

The Queensland Gemfields nearly gain four residents!

We left Longreach early in the morning and started heading east.  We were basically following the Tropic of Capricorn towards the coast, but there are some interesting things to see on the way.

We stopped at Barcarldine at the famous 'Tree of Knowledge'.  Under the branches of this tree in the 1890's, shearers gathered to protest the poor pay and conditions offered pastoralists.  There were many shearers camps in this area from the Great Shearers Strikes, however it is believed that it was here that the genesis for what was to become the Australian Labor Party was formed.

Move forward a hundred years and it is rumoured that in 2006 someone poisoned the tree - and the resultant sculpture around the dead tree trunk (opened in 2008) is stunning.  Regardless of your political pursuasion, this is an interesting place.

Tree of Knowledge at Barcarldine

We continued on our way east and made our way to a small community called Sapphire.  In the heart of the Queensland Gemfields, this area is famous for its sapphires funnily enough.  To be honest we weren't sure what you could fossick here, as down the road is Rubyvale and Emerald is about 50km further east.