2012 CLUB ACTIVITIES
JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER
2012 WARRNAMBOOL GEM CLUB SHOW
The show ran from Friday 6th to Sunday 8th of January and was a great success for the club. See the report on the 2012 Gem Show page.
18th & 21st Thanks to Ted M., Kay K., Lorna L., John H., Alan & Jenni W., Kathleen B., James H. and Alan A. for reorganising the meeting area and the faceting room prior to the start of the new year for the club. The new display cases are in place and some repainting and a general cleanup have done wonders for our clubrooms.
February Alan Wood showed members photos of 2 pendants and a ring, produced from peridot from the Mortlake (Mt Shadwell) quarry, which Alan cut. Each item is set in gold. The first pendant below has just been created, the largest stone is around the 8 ct mark. The stones were found last december. The lower pendant and the ring are also Mt Shadwell stones which Alan cut for his wife.
On Sunday 4/3/12, members from the Ballarat & Warrnambool clubs fossicked at the Mt Shadwell quarry. The weather was good and members enthusiastic, but only a few finds were made. See the two photos below!
Above: gold & peridot ring
Left: gold nugget & peridot pendant
Fossickers at work at the quarry at Mt Shadwell.
Michael Keyburn, Alan Wood & Rosemary Keyburn fossicking.
March On the weekend of the 10 & 11th, 10 club members attended the Gemkhana in Shepparton. Despite the recent rains the weather was excellent and the site dry. The showcases were of a high standard and there was plenty to look at and buy. Some members also had a good look around the town itself. All up a great weekend away for the group.
Warrnambool club members camp sites.
General view of show on Saturday.
Warrnambool club members John & Darren
Warrnambool club member Darren tailgating.
Display case.
Display case.
Display case.
Club members Janice and keith helping out on a stall.
Club member John Honan demonstrating at the AFG table.
John’s entry in the AFG competition.
Despite rumours, this is not a boot sale! Guess which club member could not find her alarm clock in her car?
Some of the members relaxing (L to R, Kathleen, Ted, Val, keith, Janice).
Alan Altmann has tumbled some agates he collected from Calder in N.W. Tasmania, in February. The agates are mainly black & white with some having red bands also. Many have calcite sections/cavities and show some cracking. They have been transported and eroded over time and some have cracks. However, many have lovely banding and make attractive specimens. The agate below is 100 mm wide with dense clean banding.
Above and below, tumbled agates from Calder in N.W. Tasmania. $2 coin gives an indication of size.
April On Sunday the 15th, 9 club members travelled to Portland to view the gem & mineral display which is located in the tourist Tram Depot at Henty oval. The display, which contains part of the lapidary efforts of a local lapidary/collector has been put on display by the efforts of Cor Melis and other enthusiasts in the area. It contains a large selection of polished slabs and spheres and specimens. Most are Australian from famous localities such as Agate creek and Wyloo station, to name two. There are also a good number of Mexican agates on display.
Club members, with Cor Melis (lhs), at entry to Tram Depot. The photos below give you a small indication of the collection, but do not do it justice. Well worth a visit.
Club members at Penshurst Volcano Discovery centre.
Club members at Burn Brae homestead.
Tucking into a great lunch at Burn Brae!
May 27 Some 14 club members had a great day out. Starting off at Alan Woods gem & mineral display in Mortlake & an hours fossicking at Mt Shadwell. The weather was kind to us, cool but fine. Several members found material suitable for cabbing plus some nicely formed bombs and some Anorthoclase Felspar. We then travelled to Burn Brae homestead near Penshurst where we had a fantastic/delicious/healthy lunch and a good look around the homestead. We should have allowed 3 hours instead of the 2 we spent there. Mid afternoon we visited the Volcano Discovery centre in Penshurst where members viewed the displays and had a very informative lecture/discussion session. Once again the time went far too quickly. Club members then drove up Mt Rouse to view the lava flows and geography of the area. Great views and plenty of kangaroos.
September Club members are back from fossicking and tripping during winter. At the club rooms the Doris Sizeland display unit has been painted by Kathleen Brockett and now looks much improved. This involved carefully removing a few hundred specimens and labels (photographed beforehand), painting the unit and then replacing all the specimens. Thanks must go to Kathleen for the time and effort she devoted to this improvement to our displays!
Congratulations must also go to Kathleen on the arrival of her new ‘baby’, a ‘Hall-
Alan Wood brought some interesting agate/chalcedony specimens, from the south island of N.Z., To the club for members to view. These specimens consist of 2 to 6 layers of agate/chalcedony which fit together like a 3D jigsaw and can be partly or fully dismantled into individual layers.
The specimen above consists of 3 layers. The photo below shows the same specimen with the top layer removed.
The photo below shows the same specimen, clearly showing how the two parts can fit together.
The two specimens below show the typical appearance of the ‘male’ portion of the sections.
The photo below shows the ‘male section’ of a specimen approximately 80 mm wide. These second photo shows both the ‘male’ and ‘female’ sections of the same specimen.
October The faceting room at the club has been well used of late. Kathleen B., Dianne W. and James H. have been faceting regularly and making good progress.
November On Sunday 11th, eleven club members travelled by bus to the Geelong Gem Show. The show was held at the community centre in Vines Rd. It was a good trip down and back. At the show club members had a good look at the display cases and purchased laps, rough, loupes etc. A good chance for a chat with fellow lapidarys!
James H. getting some advice from John H. on the finer points of faceting.
John H. assisting Kathleen B. who is using her new ‘Hall’ faceting machine.
Diane W., the third of our keen facetors at the workshop this month.
21/11/12 At the club A.G.M. Kathleen Brockett was elected President, John Colledge was elected Secretary and Kay Keen remained Treasurer. Kay Keen was also awarded life membership for her contributions to the club over an extended period of time.
Club member John Honan showed club members the two stones he had entered in the A.F.G. Victorian Branch competition. John achieved excellent results, obtaining a silver medal for his efforts. Well done John!
26/11/2012 Three club members visited the Stawell Gold mine for a tour by Geologist Derek Walters. Derek drove the three of us (A.Altmann, J&N Mibus) though the maze of tunnels which form the mine at present. The scale of the mine underground is staggering. We only travelled some 900 m below the surface as the last sections were still being worked. However the trip covered a distance of several kilometres all up as we went up and down the various inclines.
The safety procedures at the mine were impressive and reassuring. The underground meal areas and truck/machinery facilities were far larger than I would have expected so far underground and demonstrated the complexity of running a modern mine. Overall, a great experience. The mine will soon close down as the economic ore zone has been mined out.
John Honan (centre, with blue container) at the A.F.G. Workshop at the Old Priory in Beechworth.
The competition stones with John Honan’s stones in two left columns, second and third from the bottom.Note the scores of 90.05 and 90.34.
John’s medallion for his second place in the faceting competition.
Above: the entry to the mine decline. Below: the ore treatment plant which extracts the gold.
L to R: Noel Mibus, Alan Altmann, Jill Mibus at the mine site.
Centre: Geologist Derek Walters who drove us around the underground workings explaining how the mine functions.
TO SEE PHOTOS OF THE SHOW, GO TO THE GEELONG 2012 SHOW PAGE.
