
A fossicking (prospecting) festival in Emmaville this long weekend promises to be fun for all the family – for miners and minors alike.
This is the first year the Gemorama has been held. Organiser Bob Rodger hopes it will be an annual fixture, similar to Glen Innes’s Minerama, NSW’s largest annual gem show.
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“Fossickers need to be looked after,” he said. “They don’t just come up for a day; they come up for a week or two, and fossick around the whole area.”
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The event allows them to explore the old mining town. Emmaville is close to the Grampians, one of Australia’s richest mineral belts. At one time, there were 30 mines in the area – mostly tin, but also silver and emeralds. Even today, rock-hunters find topaz, arsenic, and quartz crystals.
Visitors will get to fossick at the Webbs Consol Silver Mine; Three Waters up at Bullock Mountain; and a mystery location.
You don’t need to be a mineralogist to enjoy the weekend, though.
“We've got so many people here that are more than willing to give their experience and their knowledge to the younger generation, and to the older generation, for that matter,” Bob said.
“It's more social than actually finding the stones; it's more of a get-together of old friends and new friends."

Bob is expecting 100 to 150 people a day, many of whom can camp at the site. There will be live music and a lamb and pork spit each night.
The event will raise money for the local SES, the Guyra Food Hub, and two organisations, Frontline Forces and Wounded Heroes, that help homeless veterans find food and shelter.
“They supported me, and they supported my brothers and sisters,” Bob said.
Bob himself is an ex-service man, army and navy. He’s been fossicking since his youth; he did his first bit at Lightning Ridge in 1967, when there was only one pub – but he came away with heaps of opals. He came up to Emmaville 12 years ago, when the Minerama had an excursion to a fluoride mine, and fell in love with the area.
“People should come for the camaraderie, to see the beautiful countryside up here, and to bring families together,” Bob said. “You can get the kids off the computers and mobile phones; it gets them out into the bush and enjoying life.”
Gemorama runs from June 9 to 11, at 5304 Strathbogie Road, Emmaville. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/Gemorama/. Tickets are $20; book on the day.

Nicholas Fuller
The exciting thing about journalism is the variety; one can explore the world, meet interesting people and write about it. I've sat in the caravan of an African circus ringmaster; I've squatted on my haunches in a plastic-sorting factory in the Mumbai slums, talking to the workers and drinking hot chai in plastic cups the size of thimbles; and I've interviewed Chinese cultural attachés, Danish football stars and Japanese drummers. Now I’ve come to the Northern Tablelands as a group journalist working across six of Fairfax’s mastheads. Living in New England is a return to country. My father’s side of the family lived here since the 19th century. My great-great-grandparents are buried in Ben Lomond. My great-grandmother and grandmother spent most of their lives in and around Glencoe and Glen Innes, and are both buried in Tamworth. My grandfather isn’t; his ashes are in a cupboard until we throw them in the Macdonald, near Bendemeer, where he used to fish. And my father cut his teeth as a cadet journalist on the Northern Daily Leader, before moving to Canberra, and studied history at UNE. Moving here is following in the family footsteps. Armidale seems charming: up here, in Australia’s highest city, one feels close to the sky. And the mixture of 1830s historic buildings; green, rain-washed hills, crowned with conifers; and one of the country’s leading universities give it a unique appeal. I completed my journalism qualifications last year, while freelancing for newspapers and magazines, and holding down a full-time job. I spent the end of last year in Sri Lanka, where I reported on visiting Buddhist dignitaries (from exotic Perth), UN development programs, Italian food weeks, and hotels in former war-zones. Previously, I worked as a writer and editor for the Australian Government in Canberra for a decade. In my day job, I briefed members of parliament about international relations, and wrote about agricultural aid programs to developing countries. Journalism, though, is where my heart lies. I want to experience life, rather than sit behind a desk. And, having grown up in Belgium, I want to be Tintin. I hope to get to know and love the region where my ancestors lived, while reporting on issues important to the Tablelands.
The exciting thing about journalism is the variety; one can explore the world, meet interesting people and write about it. I've sat in the caravan of an African circus ringmaster; I've squatted on my haunches in a plastic-sorting factory in the Mumbai slums, talking to the workers and drinking hot chai in plastic cups the size of thimbles; and I've interviewed Chinese cultural attachés, Danish football stars and Japanese drummers. Now I’ve come to the Northern Tablelands as a group journalist working across six of Fairfax’s mastheads. Living in New England is a return to country. My father’s side of the family lived here since the 19th century. My great-great-grandparents are buried in Ben Lomond. My great-grandmother and grandmother spent most of their lives in and around Glencoe and Glen Innes, and are both buried in Tamworth. My grandfather isn’t; his ashes are in a cupboard until we throw them in the Macdonald, near Bendemeer, where he used to fish. And my father cut his teeth as a cadet journalist on the Northern Daily Leader, before moving to Canberra, and studied history at UNE. Moving here is following in the family footsteps. Armidale seems charming: up here, in Australia’s highest city, one feels close to the sky. And the mixture of 1830s historic buildings; green, rain-washed hills, crowned with conifers; and one of the country’s leading universities give it a unique appeal. I completed my journalism qualifications last year, while freelancing for newspapers and magazines, and holding down a full-time job. I spent the end of last year in Sri Lanka, where I reported on visiting Buddhist dignitaries (from exotic Perth), UN development programs, Italian food weeks, and hotels in former war-zones. Previously, I worked as a writer and editor for the Australian Government in Canberra for a decade. In my day job, I briefed members of parliament about international relations, and wrote about agricultural aid programs to developing countries. Journalism, though, is where my heart lies. I want to experience life, rather than sit behind a desk. And, having grown up in Belgium, I want to be Tintin. I hope to get to know and love the region where my ancestors lived, while reporting on issues important to the Tablelands.