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AGATE CREEK SAFARI – APRIL 2009
After being packed and ready for a couple of weeks, we finally set off on our journey to Agate Creek on Saturday 4th April after getting the all clear that the rivers and crossings were passable.
We met up with Geoff at Rockhampton for our first overnight stay and were up and away by 6.30 a.m. Sunday morning heading for Ayr for our next stopover. Monday morning saw us heading to Townsville to pick up the rest of our food supplies and then over the Herveys Range Road to the Gregory Development Road passing through Blue Water Springs, Greenvale, The Lynd, Einasleigh and finally to Forsayth where we stayed overnight at the Forsayth Caravan Park. Travelling along the Gregory Development road we encountered very large ore trucks carrying ore to the refinery at Townsville. As most of this road is single lane when an ore truck approaches we had to completely leave the bitumen in order to pass these large trucks. There is generally a prime mover with up to four trailers attached and they don’t slow down when passing you.
Tuesday morning we were on our final leg into Agate Creek which is approximately 70 km south of Forsayth. This took us 2 ½ hours as it was slow going negotiating some of the creek crossings and the Robertson River crossing. The boggy sections had only been repaired the previous week by dumping truck loads of large river gravels in the boggy areas.
At last, after 3½ days travelling, we arrived at our destination – Agate Creek – to find three other groups of campers had got in before us – how disappointing.
After setting up camp, we took off down the creek to collect all these wonderful big agates which we presumed would be lying all over the creek bed as a result of the rains and floods the area had experienced recently. However, our expectations apparently were a little too high, as there were not quite the number of agates lying around that we had anticipated.
On the second night there we had just retired to bed when we heard the sound of rain on the canvas roof. It rained steady all night and cleared up at daylight but did not create any problems as far as driving around the black soil roads.
Geoff decided to give the creek a miss and go digging instead but John and I remained loyal to the creek and spent most of our two week stay searching every nook and cranny to find the elusive agate. We were slowed down each day about lunchtime when the heat restricted our enthusiasm to keep walking the creek gravel beds. We generally headed back to camp around 1.30-2 pm for a cold drink and a sit in the shade.
On our final fossicking day we decided to top up our agate haul by going to a local thunder-egg digging spot. This spot is only five minutes drive from camp and then a walk up a hill for ten minutes. The thunder-egg dig is right on the end of the ridge and there has been quite a lot of digging here but the eggs are still plentiful. Within a half hour we had all we could carry back down the hill. We selected ones about cricket ball size and just and a little smaller as these tend to be the best for agate interiors.
Agate Creek – with plenty of water View from Thunder egg digging site
The supply of agate in the creek gravels has certainly become very scarce and quality stones are extremely scarce. It appears that to acquire a reasonable amount of agate one will have to rely on “digging” in the future.
Agate Creek is a world of its own – no telephones, TV, Ambulance sirens, traffic noise – just beautiful peace, quiet and tranquillity and even if the agates are a little scarce, it is a truly beautiful place to spend a holiday.
Digging for Thunder-eggs Lunchtime by the creek It wasn’t long before our two week stay came to an end and we had to pack up and say goodbye to Agate Creek leaving Geoff behind to spend another couple of months in gemstone heaven.
Beryl and John Nedwich |
