Quick trip north via Roma and Rubyvale

[Flossymk1]

We are planning a quick trip up to Yalboroo in NQ to visit friends for a few days and have decided to go via an inland route and do some gem fossicking along the way.

It's a whirlwind trip which only gives us 3 nights to play with on the way up there (will come back via the coast as we will be stopping in Gladstone to visit family).

So the plan is to stop in Roma for 1 night just to break up the journey and then head up to Rubyvale? for a couple of nights - any recommendations on the best gem fossicking tours? Would love to do a tour of an underground mine and of course the kids are keen to find some gems - given that we will only have 1 full day I think we would have to do one of the 'touristy' options to essentially 'guarantee' that the kids will find something in their pan!

After Rubyvale we are hoping to drive through to Yalboroo via Moranbah & Mackay.

Any advice on roads, places to stay and info on gem fossicking tours would be great please!

 

[Drover]

Rubyvale or Sapphire have nice van parks and there is a tourist mine in Rubyvale, can't miss it and it's pretty good value, a number of places including the parks will sell you a bag of wash and show you what to do with it, always find something in the wash where noodling around in the creek bed can be fruitless, the road from Rubyvale to Clermont is a good road with some nice scenery, detour to Theresa Crk Dam is worth it, road thru Moranbah and onward is good.
Only one fuel stop between Roma and Rolleston at Injune so make sure you top up if needed and refuel at Emerald as fuel can be pricey on the Gemfields....Have a good one.

You can cut some time by turning off at Eton and miss Mackay, saves a heap of Km's, good road have used it a lot in the truck and van.

 

[Dobbie]

and maybe an added bonus of doing some yabbie fossicking in the dam around Emerald?

I hear they're really prolific there at the moment so we're going to try our luck in a few weeks....we'll be fossicking for yabbies or redclaw rather than minerals....but we'll still be fossicking!

Sorry, can't help with the real fossicking....but good luck with it.

 

[Flossymk1]

Thanks for the info! I have booked in to the Villa Holiday Park in Roma for 1 night, and the Rubyvale Caravan Park for 2 nights

I hope we wont freeze at night as we don't have a diesel heater in the van and the Coleman unit might struggle if its gets too cold - will have to make sure we pack lots of blankets and warm gear!

 

[Dobbie]

We've just come through that area.....yes, cold ar night but bearable if your bed is warm!

We just rugged up a bit, didn't bother with air con (no power anyway) and put the hot water bottles in bed so we stayed warm all night. When we didn't use the hot water bottles, it took a while till body heat warmed up the bed. I was divesting clothes during the night as I was more than warm!

Have fun fossicking.

 

[Flossymk1]

Good to know @Dobbie and thanks for the road info @Drover - will definitely make use of the short cut by turning off at Eton