The most popular fossicking area in southern Tasmania is Lune River, which produces mostly lapidary material. Lune River materials include agate, carnelian, onyx and sardonyx, jasper, petrified wood and petrified fern. Occasionally agate geodes have vughs with clear quartz crystals, rarely citrine or amethyst.
Continue readingDate Archives → May 2015
Tasmanian goldfields – north east
This week I’m writing about an area that contains some of our earliest gold discoveries — the north-east. I will discuss a bit of history, linking to newspaper articles from the times of the original discoveries. I also go over places worth a try if you want to find some gold, and finally there’s a section on how I go about finding information by searching online resources. There is quite a bit of information in this post, so I recommend grabbing yourself a cuppa before you start!
Continue readingWhat about Tunnel Marsh?
Back in 1996, when Tasmania’s Fossicking Areas were proclaimed into law, there were eleven, instead of the current ten. Tunnel Marsh was the 9th Fossicking Area proclaimed in the original order. However, it seems to have mysteriously dropped off the map, and is no longer recognised as an approved Fossicking Area. Since the area has reverted public land, and is unreserved, the Fossicking Area should be re-instated as soon as possible.
Continue readingGetting started – Where to go
As you can probably guess, you can’t just go anywhere and start digging up stuff. There are two main choices: to go to designated Fossicking Areas, or to get a Prospecting Licence and be able to go to most public, unreserved land.
Continue readingGetting started fossicking – Tools
So you’re interested in fossicking in Tasmania? What do you need to get started?
The main things you’re going to need to know about can be broken down approximately into tools, areas, and permissions. Today I’ll cover tools in general, and in the next two posts I’ll go over areas and permissions, which are somewhat interlinked.
Continue readingFossicking in Tasmania – What can you find?
Hello, welcome to my first blog post! So, what minerals do we have in Tasmania that you can fossick for? Well, what are you interested in? I’ll give a very general overview of the main stuff you can fossick or prospect for, and in other posts I’ll go into more detail about particular areas, or minerals.
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