Agate Creek agates - Darren Jones

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The Agate Creek fine agates website was created by Darren Jones and John Nedwich in order to share the beauty and wonder of Australia's spectacular agate varieties with the world.

Marty drives my toy car across the sandy Robertson River in outback Queensland on the way to Agate Creek. ~ Darren Jones

The gravels of Agate Creek contain specimens with unique colour combinations not found in any of the known agate digs. ~ John Nedwich

Darren hard at work in the shop
doing what he does best.

John has many years of experience both in the
field, and in the workshop.

DARREN'S STORY

I first visited Agate Creek in 1987 on my first big fossicking adventure. I was 18 years old and travelling with a high school mate, Martin. We bumped along corrugated dirt roads for two days until we arrived at the Forsyth pub in the late afternoon. We were now so close. At the local publican’s advice we had a meal and ended up sleeping on the pub veranda in their camp beds. We may have drunk too much beer. We woke early the next morning to a beautiful chorus of birdsong and a small horse with its head through the car window greedily munching on our box of cereal. Bloody thieves! After retrieving our breakfast we set off for Agate Creek. Shortly thereafter we traversed the sandy Robertson River in my 1981 Corolla sedan. This was without incident despite the dire predictions of the pub locals. “You’ll never make it across the river in that toy car...you’re dreaming”. Once across the sandy stretch of river it took us six hours to go a further 100km along the treacherous road into Agate Creek. We were we glad to arrive.

The next few days found us getting to know some local identities and their peculiar views on all manner of things. There’s nothing like two greenhorns bumping into a seasoned miner to get the stories flowing. One old timer told the story of how he had collected some incredible purple skinned agates, only to arrive home after many weeks collecting, to find that someone had replaced his newspaper wrapped finds with ordinary creek stones. “Bloody thieves!” He wasn’t happy. He said he suspected a young rebel camped near to him that year and we’d better not have any ideas about stealing his agates because he’d padlocked the bright yellow trunk he kept them in. I’m sure that gem fields the world over are the same – colourful, yet slightly menacing.

Each day saw us trekking up hills and along creeks with picks and shovels in hand to collect those little almond shaped treasures that have become a glad addiction. This is my first memory of Agate Creek and a lifelong fascination has blossomed from these humble beginnings. I now have friends around the world that share my love for agate and I still travel to Agate Creek, just not as often as I would like to. Bring on retirement.

JOHN'S STORY

I first became interested in collecting gemstones in 1965. My first trip to Agate Creek was in 1980 along with three other members of our Gem Club. Since then I have made fifteen trips to the area. We generally make it a four day trip from our home to Agate Creek. In the early days the trip from Forsayth to the "end of the road camp" took around four hours. On our last visit it took about one and a half hours to make the trip.

We have always spent the first few days of each trip fossicking the creek gravels. It has produced for us the best agate both in colour and pattern variety. I have found that you can find colours in the creek gravels that are not found at any of the current digging spots.

It is not a priority for the trip to produce an abundance of stone for me but the atmosphere alone of the area is worth the time spent in travelling there. Walking the creek gravels stopping for morning tea in the shade of a gum tree, continuing on until you feel it is time to head back to camp and check your day's finds really make for an enjoyable holiday. Our visits are always made in the cooler months of May to July when daytime temperature make it bearable to dig when the creek walking in completed. We generally spend about two weeks there on each visit.

I have cut about half of the agate I have found over the years with the remainder still awaiting to be cut. I have processed the stone into polished halves, cabochons and preformed tumbled stones. The smaller stone up to about two inches in diameter I sand and polish by hand on an eight inch disc on the end of a grinder and the larger stones I polish on a vibra-lap.

My favourite stone is a small agate about one inch in diameter with colours of green and violet. I have never encountered another one this colour combination in all the agates I have cut. (Photo at left)