The Yowah nut is a type of precious opal, found within the Yowah opal fields situated in Yowah, Shire of Paroo, South West Queensland, Australia since the latter part of the 19th century. [1] These opals are known for their distinctive nut-like shape, opalescent patterns, and vibrant colours.
Yowah, an opal mining town with a population of 126, [2] is known for its Yowah nuts. The Yowah opal field is characterized by the presence of ironstone concretions, which serve as the host material for the opal deposits. Yowah nuts are a type of precious opal, which is a hydrated form of silica. They are formed through a natural process that involves the percolation of silica-rich water into cavities and voids within ironstone concretions. Over time, the silica deposits accumulate and solidify, creating opalescent patterns. [3] Bryan Rossiter discovered them before becoming the manager of the Southern Cross Mine, [1] [4] registered in Yowah on 1 September 1884. [1] Characterized by its unique resemblance to a "nut," the Yowah nut distinguishes itself from other opal formations. [5] This distinct shape arises from a natural process involving the substitution of organic material with opal. Over time, the original matter, often a fossilized shell or wood, undergoes decay, leaving behind a void that is subsequently filled with opal. The rarity is due to only one in 10,000 Yowah Nuts contain opal. [6] The opalization process imbues the interior of the void with an assortment of hues and designs, giving rise to the array of colours including blue, green, red, yellow, and orange. These are highlighted by flashes of iridescence that transform as the angle of observation shifts. This optical phenomenon, referred to as "opalescence," which augments the gemstone's allure and value. [5]
David Darby, an Indigenous Australian opal miner from Yowah, discovered the "Yowah Moon opal" in 2020 on his late father's mine at Brandy Gully, on the outskirts of Yowah. Opals are highly valued worldwide, but to Darby, it also had spiritual value. Yowah nut opals were formed during the Cretaceous period, approximately 65 to 135 million years ago, coinciding with the time of the dinosaurs. In March 2024, Geoscience Australia applied for funding from the Australian Government National Cultural Heritage Account Funding program, [7] to purchase the opal for $100,000. It was valued[ by whom? ] at $200,000, and will be housed in the "Rocks That Shape Australia" collection in Canberra as Darby wished to keep the opal in Australia and make it publicly accessible. [8]
Mining for Yowah nuts requires delicate handling, as they are often encased within hard ironstone. [9] Conservation efforts are required to ensure their sustainable harvesting. The Queensland Government has produced wetland mapping to identify and map flora and fauna in the area to provide greater protection. [10]
The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a number of climatic zones, including tropical and monsoonal climates in northern areas, arid areas in the "red centre" and semi-arid and temperate climates in southerly regions. The total population is estimated at roughly 607,000 people.
A gemstone is a piece of mineral crystal which, when cut or polished, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. Certain rocks and occasionally organic materials that are not minerals may also be used for jewelry and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some softer minerals such as brazilianite may be used in jewelry because of their color or luster or other physical properties that have aesthetic value. However, generally speaking, soft minerals are not typically used as gemstones by virtue of their brittleness and lack of durability.
Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide (α-Al2O3) with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin sapphirus from the Greek sappheiros (σάπφειρος), which referred to lapis lazuli. It is typically blue, but natural "fancy" sapphires also occur in yellow, purple, orange, and green colors; "parti sapphires" show two or more colors. Red corundum stones also occur, but are called rubies rather than sapphires. Pink-colored corundum may be classified either as ruby or sapphire depending on locale. Commonly, natural sapphires are cut and polished into gemstones and worn in jewelry. They also may be created synthetically in laboratories for industrial or decorative purposes in large crystal boules. Because of the remarkable hardness of sapphires – 9 on the Mohs scale (the third hardest mineral, after diamond at 10 and moissanite at 9.5) – sapphires are also used in some non-ornamental applications, such as infrared optical components, high-durability windows, wristwatch crystals and movement bearings, and very thin electronic wafers, which are used as the insulating substrates of special-purpose solid-state electronics such as integrated circuits and GaN-based blue LEDs. Sapphire is the birthstone for September and the gem of the 45th anniversary. A sapphire jubilee occurs after 65 years.
Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·nH2O); its water content may range from 3% to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6% and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms of silica, which are considered minerals. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl, and basalt.
Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia, 846 km (526 mi) north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. A blower truck is raised above the town sign, representing the importance of opal mining to the town's history. Coober Pedy is also renowned for its below-ground dwellings, called "dugouts", which are built in this fashion due to the scorching daytime heat.
Lightning Ridge is a small outback town in north-western New South Wales, Australia. Part of Walgett Shire, Lightning Ridge is situated near the southern border of Queensland, about 6 km (4 mi) east of the Castlereagh Highway. The Lightning Ridge area is a centre of the mining of black opal and other opal gemstones.
The Shire of Paroo is a local government area in South West Queensland, Australia. The administrative centre is the town of Cunnamulla. The Paroo Shire covers an area of 47,623 square kilometres (18,387 sq mi). In the 2021 census, the Shire had a population of 1,679.
In Australia, New Zealand and Cornwall, fossicking is prospecting, especially when carried out as a recreational activity. This can be for gold, precious stones, fossils, etc. by sifting through a prospective area. In Australian English and New Zealand English, the term has an extended use meaning to "rummage". The term has been argued to come from Cornish. The term likely originates from the Latin “fossa,” meaning “ditch”, “trench”.
White Cliffs is a small town in outback New South Wales in Australia, in Central Darling Shire. White Cliffs is around 255 km northeast of Broken Hill, 93 km north of Wilcannia. At the 2021 census, White Cliffs had a population of 156.
The Koroit opal field is an opal mining area in Paroo Shire in South West Queensland, Australia. It is located about 80 km north northwest of Cunnamulla. It is not a town, nor should it be confused with the town of Koroit in rural western Victoria, Australia. It has neither electricity nor running water. Koroit is close to the town of Yowah which also produces a similar type of opal.
Mintabie is an opal mining community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara in South Australia. It was unique in comparison to other communities situated in the APY Lands, in that its residents were largely not of Aboriginal Australian origin, and the land had been leased to the Government of South Australia for opal mining purposes since the 1980s.
Ammolite is an opal-like organic gemstone found primarily along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains of North America. It is made of the fossilized shells of ammonites, which in turn are composed primarily of aragonite, the same mineral contained in nacre, with a microstructure inherited from the shell. It is one of few biogenic gemstones; others include amber and pearl. In 1981, ammolite was given official gemstone status by the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO), the same year commercial mining of ammolite began. It was designated the official gemstone of the City of Lethbridge, Alberta in 2007.
Chrome chalcedony is a green variety of the mineral chalcedony, colored by small quantities of chromium. Its name is derived from Mutorashanga, a small ferrochrome mining town in Zimbabwe where the mineral was discovered in the 1950s.
Geologically the Australian state of New South Wales consists of seven main regions: Lachlan Fold Belt, the Hunter-Bowen Orogeny or New England Orogen (NEO), the Delamerian Orogeny, the Clarence Moreton Basin, the Great Artesian Basin, the Sydney Basin, and the Murray Basin.
The geology of Queensland can be subdivided into several regions with different histories. Along the east coast is a complex of Palaezoic to Cainozoic rocks while much of the rest of the state is covered by Cretaceous and Cainozoic rocks. A Precambrian basement is found in the north west and Cape York regions. The Thomson Orogen occurs in the central and southern parts of Queensland, but is mostly covered by younger basins.
Mount Jackson is a hill in outback Western Australia located at 30.249°S 119.264°E. It is situated 67 kilometres (42 mi) NNW of Koolyanobbing and 110 kilometres (68 mi) NNE of Southern Cross. It is in the Shire of Yilgarn.
South West Queensland is a remote region in the Australian state of Queensland which covers 319,808 km2 (123,479 sq mi). The region lies to the south of Central West Queensland and west of the Darling Downs and includes the Maranoa district and parts of the Channel Country. The area is noted for its cattle grazing, cotton farming, opal mining and oil and gas deposits.
Yowah is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Paroo, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Yowah had a population of 126 people.
Beverly the Bug is the first and only known opal with an insect inclusion. It contains "the exoskeleton of a nymphal insect belonging to the order Hemiptera and either the family Tettigarctidae or the Cicadidae".
Aquamarine is a pale-blue to light-green variety of the beryl family, with its name relating to water and sea. The color of aquamarine can be changed by heat, with a goal to enhance its physical appearance. It is the birth stone of March.
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