Life is like the
river, sometimes it sweeps you gently along and sometimes the rapids come out
of nowhere. Emma Smith http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/river
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| Bridge Over Fullarton River North West Queensland |
A few years ago my
children presented me with a pair of ruby earrings for my birthday. My grandmother and my mother both loved
rubies. My mother had to settle for garnets
as a substitute and she developed a love of both of these stones. I too love these gems. Last year, l decided to find a ring to match
my earrings.
A friend, tutor,
skilled facetor and jeweller had spent time on holiday with his wife in the
Fullarton River fossicking area.
Fortunately for me he found garnets and cut and set one in a gold ring that
was perfect for my needs. It is a rich red
garnet with the distinctive purplish tinge that is a mark of a Fullarton River
garnet.
Jewellery is more than
mere decoration. It is a means of
remembering those who have given it, or made it. It is a link to people and places.
My garnet ring is a
link to my forebears through memory, to my children through the earrings it
matches, and is a link to the person who made it. Is also a link to the Fullarton River which
crosses the Flinders Highway 67 ks west of Julia Creek.
The fossicking area in
which my ring originates is far to the south, upstream of the river off the
Landsborough Highway. However each time
we cross the bridge on the Flinders Highway I feel a certain emotional tie to
this long and complex river.
The eastern side of the
Fullarton River Bridge is a lovely place to stop. Kites have been flocking here since the rain
stopped. Bee eaters and apostle birds
are busy nesting along the banks.
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| Bee eaters at Fullarton River North West Queensland |
It has a history, the
Fullarton River. Like all watercourses
in Queensland it has been crossed in many places, by many people, by various
means. It has been the site of numerous
untold stories. In flood and in the Dry
it meanders from its source in the Selwyn Ranges. Its channels and tributaries flows into the
Cloncurry River system and then into the Flinders from where it debouches into
the Gulf of Carpentaria.
In November 1883 a
surveyor, using the pen name ‘Christophus’, wrote about a trip from Dalgonally
Station to Cloncurry in the previous months.
His party camped on the banks of the Fullerton (sic) River, probably not
far from where the bridge on the Flinders Highway is now.
Ninety nine years later
Tony Jones was believed murdered in the same area. An unidentified woman alleged he was shot and
his body disposed of in the river bed on the southside of the highway.
It is thirty two years
since Tony Jones disappeared and in that time the extreme climate of this area
has left its mark on the country.
Drought has turned the floodplains to dust. Floods have washed through hundreds of
kilometres on the circuitous journey to the Gulf.
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| Kettle of kites over Fullarton River |
Since ‘Christophus’ and
his party hobbled their horses and laid out their swags on the banks of the
Fullarton, through extremes of heat and cold,
through Dry and Wet, during drought and seasons of abundance the kites
have wheeled in the sky. Ascending and
descending on currents of air, vigilant, ever watchful for prey, they are utterly
indifferent to the human memories, longings and dramas taking place beneath
them.
Claire Wood
Email: longline8@gmail.com
In The Atmosphere Just Claire Wood
There is an abundance of material on the web about both the Fullarton River area and Fullarton River garnets. Below is a list of some of those:
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/264101823_Gahnite-Sillimanite-Garnet_Mineral_Assemblage_from_the_Host_Rocks_of_the_Cannington_Deposit_North_Queensland_Australia_Relationship_between_Metamorphism_and_Zn-Mineralization
In The Atmosphere Just Claire Wood
There is an abundance of material on the web about both the Fullarton River area and Fullarton River garnets. Below is a list of some of those:
YouTube video about
digging for garnets at Fullarton River:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-g6K46Klpg
Other websites of
relevance
Useful map to garnet
fossicking area:
Detailed and interesting
article on the Fullarton River area, the Selwyn Ranges and the Cloncurry area
on the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland website:
http://www.rgsq.org.au/21-141c 
Posts
Hi Claire, I'm enjoying your new posts on Longlines and Just Claire Wood about a region I know nothing about. I like your illustration of how jewellery is a link to people and places. And how wonderful to come across the Max Burns website - what a treasure chest!
ReplyDeleteThanks Bryce. It's great to get back to the blog and to catching up with other bloggers.
ReplyDelete