Things to do in Rubyvale

There’s more to Rubyvale than meets the eye.

Underground Mine Tours operate daily at Rubyvale. A must-do, they give an insight into the world of an underground gem miner.

Gem shops and galleries feature sapphires of all colours and sizes: investment stones, gift stones, specimens, rough sapphires, cut stones and jewellery.

Jewellers and gem cutters can help with faceting, polishing, setting or remodelling. Jewellery and gem-cutting courses are available to the public during the year.

Fossicking parks are privately owned gem parks where you pay to sieve the gravels and keep what you find. Learn to flip a sieve and you’re sure to find some sapphires and zircons — it’s great fun and educational too.

The Sapphire Gemfields caters for all ages and determination. Take a tag-a-long fossicking tour into the bush, following in your own vehicle with gear supplied for an out-in-the-fields experience.

The Gemfields offers a great dark location for viewing the heavens above. An observatory operates at Rubyvale with day and night sky viewing.

Camping is allowed in the fossicking areas. Permits are available from various outlets on the Sapphire Gemfields.

Meet the friendly locals and characters called Gemmies, visit the Miners Historical Centre, or take a day out to Tomahawk Creek Fossicking Area with 2,500 acres of 4WD tracks. Outback survival knowledge is recommended.

The Sapphire Wetlands is a 94.5-hectare area behind Kangoulu Park in Sapphire and is home to the endangered Fairy Shrimp.

Try specking — walking around bent over looking for sapphires on the ground — especially after rain. Commercial mining continues, with underground and open-cut viewing at some mines.

Enjoy genuine bush lifestyle in an easy-going, relaxed and safe area, with birdlife, kangaroos, wallabies, freedom and peace in the bush.

Markets are held on Sundays at Sapphire Football Grounds and on Saturdays at Rubyvale during fossicking season. Gemfest, held in the second week of August since 1988, is the Sapphire Gemfields’ annual Festival of Gems.