Central Queensland's Sapphire Gemfields

Make the discovery of a lifetime when you go fossicking for gems at the largest sapphire fields in the Southern Hemisphere, which include the towns of Rubyvale, Anakie, Willows Gemfields and Sapphire. To get there it's only a four hour drive west of Rockhampton on the Capricorn Highway.

The Sapphire Gemfields cover almost 900 square kilometres of one of the world’s most significant sapphire bearing grounds. The Gemfields’ townships are populated by many characters of different nationalities, with many local’s reporting “sapphire fever”.

Rubyvale is home to two underground tourist sapphire mines, where you can venture beneath the earth and experience for yourself how sapphire mining was done in the ancient riverbeds. Visit a local pub and view the Gemfields architecture of billy boulders and ironbark logs.

Buy a bucket of wash at Sapphire - all the digging has been done for you and all there is left to do is sieve and sort for the hidden treasure!

Dig at one of the nominated fossicking in Willows Gemfields. Some of the world’s most famous sapphires have been found here, including a 332 carat rough yellow stone, aptly named the ‘Golden Willow’.

Positioned on the ‘crossroads’ along the Capricorn Highway, Anakie hosts the annual ‘Gemfest – Festival of Gems’ every year in August. Visit the Anakie Hotel which had to be partially rebuilt in 1971 after a disgruntled patron blew out the front section with gelignite.