We had not been to Emerald before and knew nothing about it. But the dream of gem stones would always generate high levels of interest especially with villages named Sapphire and Rubyvale not so far away. So with great expectations we came to this mid Queensland town.
We arrived at Emerald on 5 Jun 2024 and left on 8 June, heading to Clermont.
Getting There
From Springsure, Emerald is only about 68km. Thankfully, as the road was very rough in places
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
History
First Nations
Whilst at Springsure I found some excellent informations panels about the first Nations people in this area, including Emerald.
This area is Kairi tribal country, sometimes called Kairi Kairi country. Also Kairi means the sun in the aboriginal language. To read about these people, and particularly their use of plants for food and medicines, click here.
As well, the way of life of the First Nations people can be read here in the first 5 or so pages. This is a generic assessment, not one specific to Emerald.
Colonial
In 1845 Ludwig Leichhardt became the first European in the area. Leichhardt named the nearby Comet River after seeing a comet and he inscribed the word ‘Dig’ on a tree by the banks of the river. The tree is now in the Queensland Museum in Brisbane.
The history of British settlement can be read here.
This included the infamous Cullin-la-ringo massacre and retaliations in relation to this.
Today Emerald is seen as a thriving rural service centre. It has a rural training college, a large number of farm machinery sales outlets, a huge irrigation dam and an airport. Established in 1879 as the base for the railway line, it has slowly grown to be the major regional centre of the Central Highlands and the gateway to the Central Western district. The Capricorn hinterland contains the largest sapphire gemfields in the world. Emerald grew very rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s as a dormitory town for major new coal mines in the Bowen Basin.
In the 2021 census, the locality of Emerald had a population of 14,906 people.
Day 1 – Wednesday 5 June 2024 – To Emerald
As we were leaving Springsure we could not help taking a last few photos of that magnificent cliff.
The drive north is very bumpy. We talked to a woman who had driven the road south the previous day and was quite nauseous. Don’t the Qld road engineers have a level? Or can’t they use a grader? It surely can’t be that hard to get a level road.
We also were driving through a very familiar a mix of forested areas and agricultural lands, long straight sections of road – often very bumpy. Here also we see distant hills and producing small mountain ranges and volcanic plugs. We also passed a large mine, well disguised with forested areas.
The camp-site is unusual to say the least. At nearly all van parks the sites typically sit between two parallel park roads, with sites divided half way between the roads, so that the sites sit back-to-back each facing their respective road.
But in this park the sites are divided lengthwise so that each is a narrow strip between the roads with access to each site from either road, although they do tell us to go onto the site facing alternatives roads. Long and narrow. So the sites alternate between which side the van drives through. Our van ended up closer to one road, while the sites on either side had the van sitting the opposite way around, but very close to our car. Their awning was next to our car, and our awing sat between their cars on either side. Everything was very cramped. If we ever come back to this park we will insist on an edge site, which are like most normal sites.
We were just about finishing our set up, when a man came up to me and said he had been told by park staff that in the central van section – where we were – you were not allowed to put tent pegs into the grass. Apparently there are underground irrigation systems that pegs could penetrate. Nobody had mentioned that when we booked in. So we had to take out the pegs and secure our awning via the 6 or so hooks that were set into the side and end edge of the concrete slab. I had to get my spare rope out to make everything secure. By this time you can imagine that this van park was not our favourite. I did chase this up with the park office – and they said yes indeed, no pegs. I pointed out that if they’d mentioned that fact to us while we were checking in, we would have requested a different site. She just smiled.
Day 2 – Thursday 6 June 2024 – at Emerald
I walked around town for my morning exercise. Later we went into the business part of town. It’s a bit of a funny town with most businesses lining Hospital Rd, leaving only a small core for the centre of the town. On the way in we saw some nice houses (not so many, though – a tad disappointing).
We first went to the railway station – what a glorious building this is. The first Railway Station was built in 1899 but burned down within a year. In 1900 a new Station was built of timber, with an iron roof, wrought iron trimmings and pillared portico. The station building is of the federation style of architecture, and is one of the few examples in Queensland of stations built in timber using this style. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register in October 1992 and was restored in 1986. Today the Spirit of the Outback is the only passenger train journey available from this station. The Station is only open when the Spirit is passing through.
It is such a beautiful building.
We then walked around the civic area. We were very disappointed at the core buildings – the post office, the court and the council chambers. They are relative new but rather ugly brick buildings – no photos for us. No heritage in that lot. But we did like the Bob Marley street art.
There is a nice streetscape although not sure what the stainless steel structure
Following that we did some shopping and went back to the van. A lazy day but I needed to catch up on finishing my posts.
Day 3 – Friday 6 June 2024 – Gems and Botanical Gardens
Kerry awoke with really painful back. Luckily I had seen a physiotherapist clinic on my morning walk. I woke in absolute agony – all around my scapula (the tail bone). I’d been up in the middle of the night and thought my right leg was going to give out. However, I managed to get into see the physio at 10am, and he gave me a good manipulation and some exercises. Still very sore when I left, but nothing like it was before.
After Kerry’s treatment we headed to Rubyvale. It’s about 60km there – which is about 10km further than Sapphire. We walked through the village. – a couple of interesting buildings and other artefacts.
But it was pretty much the same as all pf the other gems/fossicking places we have visited – Bingara (gold), Bendigo (gold), White Cliffs (opals) and Lightening Ridge (opals), are the main ones. Lots of shops – more like stalls – selling both processed and unprocessed stones, selling a bucket of dirt that may contain a hidden gem, or buying finished jewellery. Having done all of that a number of times we decided to return to Emerald and finish what we have to do there. It was quite a quirky little village though – we chatted for a while to a fellow who owned a store selling sapphires of all different colours – the yellow ones are the most prized. They are rather enticing I have to say, but I kept my credit card in my pocket.
Back in Emerald we went to the Tourist Information Office to see rather a large Van Gogh in the park next to the Tourist Office.
The superstructure is 25 metres high with 13.6 tonnes of steel involved in its construction. It is part of a concept by international artist Cameron Cross to erect seven Sunflower sculptures in seven different countries, reproducing Van Gogh’s seven different Sunflower paintings. Emerald’s Sunflower Painting was finished on 8 November 1999.
After that we walked through the Botanical Gardens. This is excellent, although poor signage left us wondering if we had missed a few things. Situated on the banks of the Nogoa River, the Emerald Botanic Gardens are the only gardens located within the Central Western District. Covering 42 hectares, the gardens provide further insight into the region’s natural environments. They have six kilometres of walking tracks.
I did want to see The Yarn Pit and the Federation Pillars, but could not work out where they are located. The Yarn Pit is simply that – to provide a place for people to meet and have a good yarn. The Federation Pillars depict the Australia identify – from1901-2001, each pillar represents one decade of our history since federation.
But unfortunately I did not get to see that. We walked through the gardens and enjoyed that. Then Kerry made for our van, and a rest, leaving me to further explore the Gardens and walk back to the Van park.
To see the photos from this post, click here