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Many famous gems around the world of the best quality have been sourced from the soils of Australia. Below are just a few examples of tall but true tales from the Australian outback.

The Presidents Heads
Carved from Star sapphire found in Rubyvale, Central Queensland. These are busts of the American Presidents Lincoln (1318cts), Washington (1056cts), Eisenhower (1444cts) and Jefferson (1381cts). A fifth bust of Martin Luther King Junior has also been carved from an Australian sapphire that originally weighed 4180cts and the finished weight of the carving is 3284 carats.

Tomahawk Tiger (unknown weight)
Found in the tomahawk creek fossicking grounds outside of Rubyvale. This large yellow gem quality sapphire is a 4cm narrow cone with green bands that give it the tiger name.

Unamed 44ct Honey Coloured Sapphire
Another superb quality and large stone from the Rubyvale region, found by the same owner of the Tomahawk Tiger. Unknown original rough size.

The Centenary Gem
A fourteen year old Serli Nelson specked the massive 2020 carats gem at Sapphire in 1979. It was consequently purchased by the Richardson Brothers of Sapphire. In 1983 the stone however was stolen from an exhibition in Sydney with other gems to the value of $8 million dollers. Surprisingly the rough gem was recovered in 1986. It is the largest gem quality sapphire in the world. It has now passed onto an American owner for several $US millions.

Black Star of Queensland
This brilliant six-point star sapphire, among the largest known black sapphires in the world. The original gem crystal, weighing 1156 carats, was found on the Reward Claim, in the Rubyvale area, in the State of Queensland, Australia. The Reward Claim lies within the Anakie Sapphire Fields, the largest of several sapphire mining areas in Australia, covering close to 900 square kilometres. The dazzling sapphire was discovered by a young boy named Roy Spencer in the 1930s on the surface of the Reward Claim; he ran back to show his father Mr. Harry Spencer (one of the earliest miners in the Central Queensland Gemfields) who remarked, “Oh yes, a large black crystal” and threw it down by the back door. Some accounts claim the stone was used as a doorstop for many years. Neither realized the value of the sapphire until it was sold uncut in 1947 to jeweller Harry Kazanjian. It was later cut and polished, revealing a brilliant six-point star sapphire weighing 733 carats.

The Autumn Glory
One of the most famous yellow sapphires was the Autumn Glory, discovered as late as 1993 in Australia. When a bloke named Wal Shadworth was fossicking near Rubyvale and stuck his pick in a lizard hole, he sensed it’d hit something solid but didn’t know if it could be a gem or a lizard’s head. So he dug into the hole – and found a 100 carat honey coloured sapphire. He had it cut to a 30 carat gem that was dubbed “Autumn Glory” and sent it off to a dealer he was told about in Texas…fifteen years later the search is still on – for both the so-called dealer and “Autumn Glory.”