Aussie families flock to remote campground in search of $10,000 treasure
During peak tourist season, Simon Harrison, who manages O'Briens Creek Campground in Far North Queensland, said it's not unusual for gleeful travellers to run up and show him the potentially valuable gemstone hidden in their hand.
'You get the disappointment where they think they've got something, and then you get the ones where they've got a real good treasure,' he told Yahoo News.
Every year, the campground near Mount Surprise attracts thousands of visitors from around the country and overseas with the lure of possibly discovering a valuable stone in the designated nearby fossicking area.
'People start turning up over Easter… when the weather starts getting cooler, then you get all the fossickers coming out because they don't want to be digging in the heat,' Simon said.
Since taking over the job in 2017, Simon said he's watched 'the demographic of the park change from fossickers only' to lots of young families with 'camper trailers and kiddies'.
'They can do their yabbying and all the kids have got all their little paddle boards,' he told Yahoo. And for the price of a night's stay and a one-month fossicking licence — which costs just under $10 for an individual and $13 for a family — they can have a crack at unearthing a pricey piece of history.
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While there are 'good finds' every year, the campground manager revealed travellers had recently made several 'fantastic' discoveries.
'We've had really good rains the last four years so there's been a lot of movement in the creek,' he explained. 'Your money stone here is aquamarine. It's rarer than the others, but there's some good aquamarine finds.'
One of the most valuable stones he has seen so far was a 96-carat aquamarine that was 'perfectly clear, perfectly coloured', and worth roughly $10,000.
However, the main stone that visitors are chasing is topaz. 'O'Briens Creek is known for the big blues that you can get here, and the different quartz. We get smokey quartz, we get citrine, we get amethyst.'
But for Simon, the real prize is the people. 'You get the good experiences with the people. I get the joy of being able to see the stuff as it comes in, and then I post it [online] so everyone else can see it.'
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