Agate Creek is situated about 500 km south west of Cairns, North Queensland. Agates from this location are referred to as "Agate Creek" or "Queensland". Here is a map of Autralia.

Agate Creek: A Fossicker's Dream - Or Nightmare

A "fossicker" is the Australian title given to someone who digs and collects agates. The following remarks are from one who is trading agates with me that are from the stash he has accumulated over many years of digging at Agate Creek:

1. The Agate Creek valley is a geological reserve for fossickers. You can only hand mine in there. NO drilling , blasting, etc.

2. No commercial parties are supposed to dig agates, i.e., everything is "own use".

3. You are absolutely right about the surface finds, most of those are long gone. However the whole area is covered with spear grass so it is really hard to see. An area not far away from the camp had been burnt this year. People walked through after the burn and found surface material and some good indicators of where to start a new hole. If they had a big bush fire through there I would get there as quick as I could.

4. It is hard to know where people have dug historically, and hard to know where to dig. We were picking some purple and red agates up by scratching about a foot below the surface not far from a track this year. It was surprising it had not been dug before.

5. I was talking to a real old timer, he has some lovely material and he was telling me he could show me a spot where we could get excellent agate; however it would take a month of digging by hand to get to the agate layer. He may be over exaggerating time wise, as we probably dig a bit quicker than most who go there. I believe the agate layer goes very deep and I am not surprised by what he has to say.

6. You can still get some really good finds after the wet season going through the creeks and flats, if they have a big wet season it will flush out material that is alluvial. Trouble is the roads are unpassable a lot of the time during the wet. Snakes and insects abound and the heat is 40 degrees plus, so first in after it finishes can be very lucky.

7. I have attached a picture of a big hole we dug on Bald Hill in 2006. It was a serious hole. We had a look at it this year and it looked like someone had scratched a couple of feet in, you could easily have redug a pile of ground that had been gone through. The heavy wet season can fill a hole really easy.

It's obvious from this description that it takes a passion and great digging power to take agates from this old overworked location but this Fossiker is a man with just that passion. Here are some photos that he sent of some of the digs and agate locations, it's a beautiful spot, we have to use our imagination to add the heat, the flies, poisonous snakes and so forth. For a wealth of information on this area Volume III of Agates by J. Zenz has an extensive artocle by Nick Crawford. At the bottom of this page is a link to agate samples from seven different locations from our friends collection.

Seven examples of Agate Creek deposits from the collection of our agate friend.

Some Agate Creek photos

Overview of Agate Creek flats

Crocodile in the Billabong

Agate Creek in the dry season

Bald Hill, a morning's find

Agate Creek at Simpson's Gulley

Iconic Crystal Hill in the background

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