Emerald, with a population of about 15000, is a service town for a large number of industries including the extensive coal mining operations carried out in the district. Whilst cotton is grown on the heavy black soil, other agricultural activities in the lighter sandy areas include grape, citrus and grain. Emerald lies on the Nogoa River, a tributary of the Fitzroy River and is approximately 270 kilometres from the Coral Sea coast.

Lake Maraboon was formed when The Fairbairn Dam was built on the Nogoa River in 1972. The dam and a network of channels along the Nogoa River supplies water for the Emerald Irrigation Area. Lake Maraboon with an active capacity of 1,301,000 megalitres is Queensland’s second largest dam. Its capacity is approximately three times larger than Sydney Harbour. Maraboon is the Aboriginal for “where the black ducks fly”.

The Gemfields, Central Queensland

The Central Queensland Gemfields lie about 50 kilometes from Emerald and are a fun place to explore and try your luck at finding Sapphires.

Several small gemstone retailers and fossicking parks are located in the villages of Sapphire and Rubyvale.

After a couple of hours and processing two buckets of “wash”, we had over 100 carats of small sapphires!

By the end of the day Jack had readied himself to move to the Gemfields and become a full-time prospector, but unfortunately Mallie was not enticed by the promises of an untold fortune and didn’t go along with the idea!