Boom and Bust – Rubyvale

Era of Machinery Mining

From the 1960s, more and more tourists began visiting the Sapphire Gemfields as fossicking holidays grew in popularity. Rising sapphire prices also attracted serious miners and gem collectors. By the mid-1960s, some miners began using earthmoving machinery to boost production.

→

The first Thai buyer arrived in 1967. By 1969, several were operating in Rubyvale from distinctive Thai Buyers Huts. When the Gregory family purchased the Anakie Hotel in 1970, they encouraged Thai buyers to visit Anakie as well.

→

As tourism and buyer interest increased, demand for gemstones surged. Machinery mining soon dominated over traditional hand mining. Tensions led hand miners to lobby parliament, resulting in sapphire-bearing land being divided—the area you see around you is set aside for machinery mining, with most other zones reserved for hand mining or fossicking.

↓

Mining of the Sapphire to Rubyvale Road, 1985
Beginning of the machinery mining boom
Machinery mining ahead of the road construction

With new markets in Thailand and greater production, the Sapphire Gemfields boomed, at one point producing around 80% of the world’s sapphires.

→

Activity slowed in the late 1970s, though both machinery and hand miners continued into the 1980s. In 1984, plans to seal the road between Sapphire and Rubyvale revealed that the route crossed sapphire-bearing ground, and the solution was uniquely Gemfields—mine it before building.

→

So, in 1985, an unusual tender was let to permit the Queensland Sapphire Mining Company to work Mining Lease 2247. This meant machinery mined a one-kilometre section of road at a time, mining the ground for gemstones and then constructing the sealed road pavement in their wake. This enormous task took around four years to complete.

↓

Jack Lawless-Pyne and Mike Monty Monteagle skying a stone

Location

Open in Apple Maps
Open in Google Maps
Open in What 3 Words

what3words

Download the what3words app to help you follow the Trail.
Here are the ///what3words identifiers for this location and for the three closest stops:

You are here: ///timed.eclipse.untaxed

Where to next?

Welcome to Rubyvale – ///autopilot.assumes.meadow

Buddies Movie – Rubyvale – ///kicked.moveable.mops

Tropic of Capricorn – ///timed.eclipse.untaxed

Scroll to Top