Pacey’s Yellow – Glenalva

Harold Clifton-Parr with his Golden Flower (Pacey’s Yellow)
Ellie in her younger days
Ellie & Bob Pacey at the opening of the sealed road to Anakie in 1976, pictured here with the Hon. Russ Hinze, MLA

It was during a family picnic here in the Glenalva Public Fossicking Area on a Sunday in October 1946, that Eleanor (Ellie) Pacey picked up a 104.89-carat orange-yellow heart-shaped sapphire, slightly larger than a 20-cent piece. 

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Born in London in 1907, Ellie emigrated to Australia with her parents Thomas and Eleanor Hall in 1913. She was 12 years old when the family arrived in Rubyvale in 1919 and she attended the Rubyvale Provisional School.

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Young Ellie married Bob Pacey in 1923 and as a young couple they enjoyed picnics, sports and dances. It was on one of these picnics that Ellie was specking the area in Glenalva that would later be named Pacey’s Ridge. You can see this ridge looking towards the northeast of this signage location.

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Word spread quickly and buyers were hanging around waiting for Ellie to name her price. Instead, she had the sapphire cut by Rubyvale gem cutter, Ernie Goerg Jnr, who faceted two gems from the stone – one a 4.50-carat yellow, the proceeds of which bought Ellie a piano, that gave years of pleasure to the Pacey family. The other, a 21.25 carat exquisite yellow was called the Golden Flower because the culet of the gem was flat, not pointed, and the view through the table looked just like a poinsettia flower. This was later sold to Harold Clifton-Parr for £400.

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Call into the Willows Gemfields to find the interpretive node about Clifton-Parr, a salesman turned famous fossicker.

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At the time, Clifton-Parr banked with the Bank of New South Wales. A Commonwealth Bank cheque was borrowed from the proprietors of the Anakie Hotel for the transaction.

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Clifton-Parr signed the cheque, which was then honoured by the Bank of New South Wales. To this day, fossickers speck on Pacey’s Ridge hoping to find another Golden Flower. After Clifton-Parr’s death in 1970, the Golden Flower reportedly sold for $9,000.

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