22 On the Gemfields

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B.  The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

The Gemfields, Central Queensland

The towns on the Central Queensland Gemfields may be tiny but their street art is larger than life. Every piece celebrates the riches found here, in the most prolific sapphire yielding region in the world.

The welcome signs on the edge of each town show a fossicker in his hopeful search for precious gems including rubies, emeralds, zircon and peridot as well as the beautiful sapphires.

The striking sculpture Sapphire Reflections greets visitors to Anakie. The coloured glass shapes sparkling in the the morning sun mirror the colours of the sapphires found in this area – the traditional deep blue but also yellow, green and black.

An oversized miner’s toolkit stands outside the general store in Sapphire, ready for a day’s fossicking.

Outside the Bobby Dazzler Mine at Rubyvale, a lucky miner shows off his find.

Even the shelter sheds celebrate the precious stones which can be found on the Gemfields!