The area is rich in history, character and charm and if you look beyond the surface you’ll be surprised at what you can find..
As John handed over $8 to buy the shop’s last bucket of stones, he joked, “I’ll have the lucky last!” He wasn’t wrong, and he became the talk of outback Queensland’s gem fields.
In that bucket of wash – that is, dirt collected from the local mines – he struck it very lucky indeed, in the form of a brilliant yellow sapphire (yes, sapphires come in a surprising range of colours) worth $10,000. I meet him three days later, as he drinks a beer beside the campervan, and you still can’t wipe the smile from his face. He’ll proudly show anyone who cares to stop and hear this good news story.
There are lots to see along Queensland’s Tropic of Capricorn trail: dinosaur diggings, gorges, national parks, rock formations and more. Travelling in a relatively straight line across the Tropic of Capricorn from Rockhampton to Longreach, the Capricorn region is a road trip that will have you in the heart of the state, both literally and metaphorically, for it’s here that you begin to understand what’s behind the glitzy surface of the sunshine state.