The gem displays at Gemseeker's Souvenirs, Anakie

Anakie (including Rubyvale and Sapphire)
The heart of some of Queensland's best gem-fossicking country.
Anakie, Rubyvale and Sapphire are, as the latter two names suggest, gem-fossicking settlements. As such they are characterised by the kind of social neglect which typically accompanies a monomaniacal preoccupation with prospective wealth. The streets, the gardens, the houses, the social activities, the sense of community are also-rans when compared to the effort invested in delving for gemstones. It is indicative of the harshness of the area that electricity only arrived in 1977.

Anakie is located 305 km west of Rockhampton on the Capricorn Highway and 951 km from Brisbane. It is, by any generous assessment, a non-event of a town. It has nothing apart from the hotel-motel, a railway station, a few houses (most of which have signs inviting visitors to come and inspect the gems) and a few unimportant roads.

It is said that the name comes from a local Aboriginal word meaning 'two hills'. The first find in the area occurred in 1875 when Archibald John Richardson found zircons at Retreat Creek. The following year a prospector found sapphires in the region and by 1881 commercial mining operations had commenced.

The arrival of the railway line in 1884 gave the loosely established settlement some focus and by 1887 Anakie was proclaimed a township.

In 1902 (the year the Anakie Hotel was built) the Anakie Sapphire Fields were officially proclaimed a mining area. Over the next thirty years the three settlements of Anakie, Sapphire and Rubyvale grew to meet the demands of the miners who, when the prices were high, poured into the area.

A boom occurred from 1906 when the gold miners from Clermont moved west to try their luck. In 1907 over £40 000 worth of gems were mined. World War 1 saw an abatement of activity but the end of the war saw renewed interest on the fields. In 1922 the Queensland Government stepped in to stabilise the sales of blue sapphires.

After 1935 the fields began to decline so that by 1953 there were only 21 full-time miners working in the area. However it was during this period that the Black Star of Queensland was found. Weighing in at a remarkable 1165 carats it was the largest black-star sapphire in the world. In 1938 a twelve-year-old local named Roy Spencer found the huge sapphire near Reward Claim. He took it home and his father, not recognising its value, left it at the back door.

The fields experienced a new lease of life from tourism in the 1960s. However the big operators arrived in the early 1970s, with heavy machinery in tow. They started to exploit the fields commercially, selling the best gemstones to dealers from South-East Asia. The frail romance of fossicking did not sit well with mass production and a sometimes-bitter antagonism developed between small-time miners and machine operators. Today the fields are a true combination of interests with individual operators, tourists and companies all vying for the beautiful stones.

Anakie describes itself as 'the Gateway to the Gemfields' and the important gemfields are appropriately located at Sapphire and Rubyvale.

The entrepreneurial spirit of Rubyvale and Sapphire is emblazoned on the trees that are passed on the way into town. They are hung with signs advertising such exotic places as 'Luke's Sapphires', 'Old Mick's Gem Shop' (which is located in the marvellously named Goanna Flats Road), 'Pat's Gems', 'Rainbow Treasure', 'Cut-a-Slice Lapidary Supplies', 'Ransom Mine - Find Your Own Sapphires' - all promoting themselves as the place to visit while on the gemfields.

Sapphire is effectively nothing more than a playing field, a caravan park, a few isolated homesteads, a general store and a few shops selling gems. It is another non–event of a town with a wonderfully temporary and transient feel suggesting that it really should only exist for the next few minutes.

Between Rubyvale and Sapphire are the large-scale sapphire operations where heavy equipment converts the countryside into a bizarre moonscape.

Rubyvale is a slightly more substantial settlement with a small shopping centre and a pub.

Pat's Gems - Dig Your Own Sapphires, at Sapphire

Things to see:  

The Bobby Dazzler Mine
One of Rubyvale's major attractions is the Bobby Dazzler Mine (located beside the road into town) where visitors can go underground to search for gemstones.

Gemseeker's Souvenirs
There is a very good and entertaining book on Anakie and the Gemfields titled Anakie: The Sapphire Fields of Central Queensland which has been written and published by Walda Scholler who, with her husband Erich, runs Gemseeker's Souvenirs at Anakie, tel: (07) 4985 4525. The Schollers can advise people on good places for fossicking and arrange tours of the mining areas.

	Tourist Information
	Capricornia Gems & Crafts Rubyvale Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4175
	Gemseeker Souvenirs Anakie Rd Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4525
	Motels
	Bedford Gardens Motel 5 Vane Tempest Rd Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4175
	Rubyvale Gemfields Motel Keilambete Rd Rubyvale Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4150
	Hotels
	New Royal Hotel Keilambete Rd Rubyale Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4754
	Caravan Parks
	Anakie Gemfields Caravan Park Richardson St Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4142 Rating: *
	Bedford Gardens Caravan Park Vane Tempest Rd Rubyvale Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4175 Rating: **
	Gemini Caravan Park Rockhound Rd Sapphire Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4280
	Rubyvale Caravan Park Cnr Keilambete & Goanna Flats Rds Rubyvale Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4118 Rating: ***
	Sunrise Cabins & Caravan Park Sunrise Rd Sapphire Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4281 Rating: *
	Restaurants
	Buddies Restaurant Old Reward Rd Rubyvale Anakie QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4985 4341