Saturday morning arrived slightly later than the previous day’s sunrise… though not much later than the kookaburras and cockatoos announcing themselves outside our cabin windows.
Deciding breakfast could wait in favour of gemstones, we headed straight to Jane’s to begin viewing her latest sapphires. One of the fascinating things about meeting cutters personally is discovering how individual their styles become over time. Some favour precision and symmetry, others lean toward unusual shapes and unexpected colour movement. In Jane’s case — definitely no pear shapes. Trilliants, freeforms and beautifully balanced rounds are more her signature. Parti sapphires have certainly become the flavour of the month within the jewellery world recently, and several of Jane’s cut stones were proving rather difficult to walk away from.
With rumours circulating that the town café had just pulled fresh fruit strudel from the oven, we eventually surrendered to breakfast and wandered that direction instead.
The café was, in every possible way, completely Rubyvale. Every surface layered with creativity, collections, colour and character. Sitting there amongst the chatter and mismatched treasures, I caught myself thinking how much my grandparents would have loved it. They spent years travelling Australia as passionate rock hounds, and in many ways this strange and beautiful gemstone world began with them. Ella now cares for most of their collection, aside from a garnet I had cut not long after we first opened To Hold & To Have — a stone I still endlessly redesign in my mind but somehow haven’t brought myself to finish making yet.
From strudel we moved on to more miners, more stories, more gemstones and more introductions before eventually arriving at the heritage mine — the centre of much of Rubyvale’s tourist fossicking activity. Underground mine tours were fully booked with busloads of enthusiastic Girl Guides, while outside, visitors stood elbow deep in buckets, bags and wheelbarrows of mine wash, sieves rattling through water troughs in search of flashes of colour amongst the gravel.
Even in winter the Central Queensland sun still carries some strength, but once fossicking settles into its rhythm the hours disappear surprisingly quickly. Dirt, water, gravel, conversation… and then suddenly the small thrill of spotting colour amongst the mud. Tiny sapphires. Zircons. Occasional pieces of gold. Enough to keep everyone hopeful for “just one more sieve.”
By late afternoon we were dusty, sun tired and carrying pockets far heavier with stories than gemstones.
Back at Jane and Michael’s we spent more time getting acquainted with our resident wallaby mumma and joey before wandering down to the local pizza van for unexpectedly excellent pizza and a quiet pause before nightfall.
Because once darkness arrived, an entirely different part of Rubyvale was waiting for us.
To Hold & To Have 