New locality Find! Was very fortunate to meet up with a drill and blast worker who was working on the St Helena Tunnel near Byron bay. You may have noted this work being carried on as your heading towards Byron from Brisbane when you find yourself going up a very steep section where there is a glass paneled wall to your left and plenty of roadworks going on. Beneath your feet there is a large tunnel being drill and blasted as part of the Ewingsdale to Tintenbar Pacific Highway upgrade. This particular stretch of tunnel was fortunate enough to intersect basaltic flows belonging to the 23 MYA Tweed valley volcanics. Surrounding areas have been known for their quartz and calcite miarolitic cavities however this material is some of the finest I have personally seen. Lustrous calcite crystals forming virtually matrix free stalactites. The gentlemen I acquired these off said they would drill and blast in 5m intervals. Shortly after each blast, the face would be inspected, some of which yielded crystal lined (up to several ft) cavities lined with calcite. One of a few lovely specimens acquired from a rather unique locality which has now been drilled, shock-creted and capped, so no more will ever come out sadly. 170mm
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 05:49:45 +0000
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