Australian Black Opal, Some useful Links, Information and expert Articles

Australia is the home to the world famous Black Opal from Lighting Ridge in New South wales. Australia is also know for other unique gemstones which are mined in different regions of Australia .These stones are sold around the world. One great Example are Pink diamonds which only come from the Argyle Diamond mine in Western Austrlalia. Whether you are looking for Australia's famous Argyle Pink Diamonds, Boulder or Black Opals, GemstonesDownunder is the right place to look. Explore some of our links to find the gems from Australia you have been looking for !

Find Rare Gems Here !

Ninety five percent of the world's opals are mined in Australia, mainly in Anda mooka, Coober Pedy, Lightning Ridge, Mintabie and other areas in NSW, SA and QLD.

• Black : Black opals have a rare body tone that often features an impressive play of colour.    
• White: More common white or milky opals , do not reflect colour as well and are often less valuable than black opals.   
• Boulder or matrix: Boulder opals , also called matrix opals, are a type of natural opal. They are mined in brown ironstone deposits. The opal is cut with the ironstone remaining in the back creating a unique and fashionable look.    
• Crystal: . They have a transparent to semi transparent state that tends to reflect a fair amount of colour. Crystal opals rank under the black opal in terms of rarity and value.    
• Fire: Rare red-orange fire opals are popular for their eye-catching colour.    
• Doublets: Doublets are a form of composite natural opal. The stone is actually made of two pieces, a solid piece of opal cemented to a black backing.
• Triplets: Triplet opals are made out of three pieces - a solid piece of opal, the black backing and a crystal cap cemented on the top.
• Synthetic and imitation: Synthetic opals are made of materials which have the same composition and physical structure but are man-made. Imitation opals simply just imitate the play-of-colour without having the physical or chemical structure as natural opals. Synthetic and imitation opals usually appear glassier than natural opals and have a precise and organised colour scheme, typically in a snakeskin pattern.
  

All The Treasures Have Been Found! Or Have They?
Peter Brusaschi

All the treasures have been found!

At least that's what I thought when I first set foot in the red dust of western Queensland, Outback Australia.

“Whatever is to be found in the ground has already been found!”… “Treasures are for Long John Silver, buried, dug up and lost again hundreds of years ago by pirates and men of adventure!”

Fancy being sent as a travelling minister to such a desolate God forsaken country. As if the isolation, the heat, the dust and the gravel road corrugations were not enough, there were those pesky flies. 'Don't worry about 'em!' was the experienced advice of the country bumpkins who didn't know there could be such a place without them. “It won't hurt ya if ya swallow one or two with ya sandwich.”

The skies in Western Queensland are very blue during the day and very black at night. I'm sure if Copernicus had aimed his telescope into the night sky of the outback, he would have discovered a lot more than he did. No light pollution here. Just one magnificent ebony backdrop, sprinkled with endless galaxies of stars.

Not that the wife and I saw much of the sky in the daytime. It was the sparkling things in the ground that held more fascination to us. Being confirmed rock hounds, It didn't take long to find out that we were travelling through some of the most famous gemstone country in the world. Gravel pits became treasure troves. Dried out creeks, Treasure Islands.

Oblivious to the fly's and the heat, we would have our heads tilted toward the ground while our eyes darted back and forth from one rock to the other, looking for agates topaz, onyx, petrified wood and anything else that exhibited the molten glass tell tale signs of a gemstone. On those very hot days, we would sit in the middle of a shallow creek sifting through the gravel.

But what happened to us when we hit the opal town of Yowah, will always remain in our memory. For the first time we encountered boulder opal in the form of what are known as 'Yowah nuts' Suddenly, interest in all other gemstones was pushed aside in favour of this amazing stone that changes color, encompasses the whole spectrum of the rainbow, and displays ever changing patterns that simulate pictures of mountain and ocean scenes, faces, all kinds of objects and abstract shapes that challenge the imagination.

Since then, I have written a CD on the subject, called 'The Ordinary Bloke's Guide to Opal”, featured on my net site. www.opalmine.com. More details of opal and the Australian outback are shown at this site

Yowah is but one of a number of fascinating outback opal fields in Australia. The Australian 'bush' has captured our hearts, and to this day we must return again and again to savour its delights.