NSW. 12
Continuing our journey through New England
- Sapphire City: InverellInverell
Historic Inverell is located in a picturesque valley on the banks of the Macintyre River, with a population of 16,000, 593 kilometres north of Sydney. Inverell is renowned as the sapphire capital, with 80% of the world's sapphires produced here. Inverell is a mixed farming area producing wheat, oats, barley, cereals, sorghum and oilseed rape as well as cattle and sheep. As a bustling commercial and service centre, it's home to some of the best shopping in New South Wales. Outdoor activities include well-developed walking routes, beautiful reserves and spectacular dams. You can also visit Goonoowigall State Conservation Area, a unique wilderness area that is home to 120 species of native birds. Explore Thunderbolts Rock Fossicking and the remains of early Chinese settlement.
Sapphires were discovered in Australia during the gold rush of 1850 and tin mining in 1870. The earliest written record of sapphires being discovered was in 1851 in New South Wales. Despite more than half a century of sapphire mining and commercial production, Australia has not been recognized by the global gem jewelry industry or consumer market. Top-quality Australian sapphires are sold as material from other sources, such as Pailin, Cambodia. Australia's vast supply of commercial-quality sapphires and its contribution to the rest of the world, particularly Thailand, are also not adequately recognized. The trade between Australians and Thais has led to the current prosperity of the global sapphire industry.
AustraliaContinentsapphireAustralian Sapphire
Since the discovery of sapphires in Australia, sapphire deposits have been reported in all areas of its east coast, but two areas are the most well-known. From south to north, they are Inverell-Glen Innes in the New England Highlands of New South Wales. All Australian sapphire deposits are associated with alkaline basalt. Gemstones are found in secondary deposits along current or former river courses and in primary/regenerative sedimentary pyroclasts or lahars.
The Inverell-Glen Innes region is one of the world's major sapphire producing areas. Sapphires were first reported in northern New South Wales in 1854, and commercial mining began in 1919. Due to the huge demand from buyers, prices have risen and new mining technologies have been introduced. Mechanized mining in this area reached its peak in the 1960s and 1970s. Sapphire is associated with volcanic activity and is often found in basaltic matrix. The same is true for sapphires from Thailand, Cambodia, China, Vietnam and Nigeria.The iron content of this type of deposit is higher than that of sapphires formed in marble, such as Burmese sapphires, so the blue color is deeper and darker, and the green pleochroism element is also stronger..The vast majority of Australian sapphires are composed of dark blue material, and some are almost black, but you can also find some brighter blues, yellows, greens, and partly colored gems showing color combinations such as greenish yellow and bluish yellow. Pink sapphires are very rare, and orange ones are even rarer.
Inverell Sapphire MinedistrictInverell Sapphire Gem Fields
Kings Plains Mine, located 45 km northeast of Inverell, is a mine operated by Wilson Gems. They have their own jewelry store in the city of Inverell. The Wilson family became one of the first miners to mine sapphires in the 1960s. The Kings Plains mining area is considered to be the richest sapphire mining area in history. There may be more than one stratum containing sapphires here, indicating that there may have been multiple volcanic eruptions here. After the materials are mined, they are cleaned, sorted and classified.Most of it will then be cut in Thailand and exported to Russia..
Secondly, our tour groups will frequently visit and have the opportunity to visit the Billabong Blue sapphire mine. Compared to the open pit mine at Kings Plains, this mine is an alluvial deposit along an old river channel, where the gravel layer containing sapphires is very shallow. Usually we try to find treasures in the experience area, just like panning for gold, and we can really find them.
Remains of early Chinese settlement in Inverell: The Story of Wing Hing Long Grocery Store
Yong Xing Long was established in the late 19th century as one of a number of shops serving the tin mining community in the Tingha district. There is a busy and typical country shop where you can buy just about anything. In 1918, Jack Joe Lowe became the owner of the store. He was born in China in 1882, arrived in Cooktown around 1900, and arrived in Tingha with his wife and eldest son around 1915, spending time in Sydney and Gunnedah. JJ Lowe is the store's fifth Chinese owner. The first one is Alin, the shop owner in Inver. He bought the land from George Philby in 1881. Subsequent Chinese owners were Jock Singh of Glen Innes (1883-1887); miner A Bao of Dinha (1887-1899); and shopkeeper Charles Xing of Dinha (1899-1918). It is unclear which of these early owners built the store, but the building materials and style suggest it was constructed in the 1880s.
Tin was first discovered in the early 1870s. The discovery led to a boom in local productivity and population, with an estimated 10,000 Chinese living in the area, which peaked in the late 19th century and declined with the mining of tin. Jack is a Chinese medicine practitioner who hopes to promote Chinese herbal medicine and medical skills in the local area. His wife Fang Quanluo runs a cafe near Yongxinglong. His five children - except Edgar who was born in Gunnedah in 1914, the next four were all born in Tingha, and they all worked in Yongxinglong and other family businesses, and later they acquired the Palace Theatre in Tingha. The family has been living in the house behind the Yongxinglong store.
In 1939 Jack Joe Lowe moved to Tamworth where he established a business of the same name with his young son Weedon. Tingha’s shop is still family owned. After World War II, Jack Joe Lowe's daughter, Mavis Pratt, took over management and eventually ownership of the store and continued in that role until her retirement in early 1998. During the first four decades of the twentieth century the store was considered a busy and prosperous business, selling a wide range of goods: bulk products, clothing, hardware, groceries (including Chinese ingredients and foodstuffs), tin ore explosives, furniture, linoleum, wallpaper. The shop is now a museum.Wing Hing Long Museum, Open to the public on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10am to 3:00pm. For enquiries, call (02) 6723 3156.
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