Sapphire was not mined commercially in NSW until 1919 when a rich area on Frazers Creek near Inverell was worked by CL Smith. Location of commercial deposits of sapphire in New South Wales and Queensland (click to see full size image) The New England gemfield is said to produce Australia’s finest blue sapphire with Queensland sapphire renowned for their range of colour (including yellow, green and parti sapphire).į igure 2. The largest and most economic sapphire deposits are in the New England region of New South Wales (NSW) around Inverell and Glen Innes, and central Queensland around Anakie and Rubyvale. Sapphire was found alongside gold and tin in many highland regions during prospecting and mining activity. Sapphires were first discovered in Australia as early as 1851 when they were found at the Cudgegong and Macquarie Rivers during the Gold Rush period. Distribution of Sapphire and Ruby in Australia (after Sutherland & Webb, 2000 Ruby is less common in Australia but may be found at various sites in NSW – notably the Gloucester area but also near Tumbarumba as well as the Macquarie and Cudgegong Rivers.įigure 1. Sapphire is found from north Queensland to north-east Tasmania and in NSW is concentrated in the highland regions along the Great Dividing Range.
Sapphire and ruby, the gem varieties of the mineral corundum is found in many east coast locations of Australia.
The purpose of the article is to discuss Australian sapphire with particular reference to the New England gemfields where our own mine is located. The following article is one we wrote for the Corunduminium website – the updated version of this website has not launched yet so we thought we would post this article here to give it a home until then.
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