About Emerald
Emerald is a thriving rural service centre with a rural training college, a large number of farm machinery sales outlets, a huge irrigation dam and an airport. Established in 1879 as the base for the railway line, it has slowly grown to be the major regional centre of the Central Highlands and the gateway to the Central Western district. The Capricorn hinterland contains the largest sapphire gemfields in the world. Emerald grew very rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s as a dormitory town for major new coal mines in the Bowen Basin (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).
Getting there
It’s a 311km drive from Barcaldine to Emerald (route map) so we broke the drive up with a couple of stops along the way, which turned out to be worthwhile stops at that.
Jericho stop-over
Jericho is a beautiful little town and a great place to stop-over while travelling through. Just needs a good coffee shop. With a population of about 100 people, it really punches above it’s weight!
The Jericho Trumpeter is a great barbwire and metal sculpture by local artist Milynda Rogers. The sculpture is dressed in period costume playing a trumpet.
The Jericho Information Centre has a fantastic display of pottery houses from around the town. It has been handcrafted by Alice McLaughlan and local artists and there are a total of 43 buildings and houses on display. The detail that has gone into the Clay Village is amazing, this is definitely a must-see!
The Crystal Trumpeters is a fairly significant sized art exhibit created by a team of local residents which is apparently meant to tell the biblical story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho & how he won the Battle of Jericho. We found it a bit confusing, but still appreciated the amount of work that had been put in to build it.
There’s also some interesting things to check out such as the old (closed) café, drive-in theatre and town hall; which is a pretty good indication of Jericho’s age. Also love the spelling displayed in a shop window. The Jericho drive-in is the smallest operating drive-in theatre in the southern hemisphere. The 36-car theatre is located in the main street called Darwin Street and it operates once per month.
Alpha stop-over
The next small town (population about 500) is Alpha, where we stopped for lunch. The only place to buy food is Tilston’s Café, located in the only service station in town. They make awesome egg & bacon rolls too!
Across the road is a set of fossilised tree sculptures. The Alpha region is famous for its petrified wood and its latest attraction the Fossilised Forest sculpture reflects this. The sculpture by Cedar Creek artist Antone Bruinsma is a representation of a boulder which has been opened to reveal its treasures and mysteries. The exterior of the sculpture has interesting forms, carvings and stone attachments that reflect the history of the prehistoric area in which petrified wood formed.
Accommodation
Arriving at the Emerald Cabin & Caravan Village we ended up in drive trough sites which was OK but it was all stone with a slab made for a 14ft caravan, but beggars cannot be choosers. It is a large caravan park situated next to the Emerald Golf Course (maplink) and the club put on a great counter meal too.
Big Van Gogh painting
The world’s biggest Van Gogh sunflower painting is situated in Emerald’s Morton Park (maplink). Also called “The Big Easel” the superstructure is 25 metres high with approximately 13.6 tonnes of steel involved in its construction. It is part of a concept by Cameron Cross to erect seven Sunflower sculptures in seven different countries, reproducing Van Gogh’s seven different Sunflower paintings. Emerald’s Sunflower Painting was finished on 8 November 1999. The painting celebrates the Central Highland’s past as a major sunflower producer.
Centenary of Federation Mosaic Pathway
The Centenary of Federation Mosaic Pathway leads you through 100 years in 100 metres of Emerald’s colourful history. The footpath features intricately tiled designs that trace history from the beginning of the universe through to visions of the future.
Lake Maraboon (Fairbairn Dam)
Looking to find something interesting to do (wasn’t all that much to do in Emerald itself) we took the 20km trip (route map) out to have a look at Lake Maraboon, stopping at the Fairbairn Dam Wall for lunch. The lake is currently at 20% capacity and has apparently been very low for over 12 years.
Day trip to check out the Gemfields Festival
We (thought) we were really fortunate to discover that the inaugural Gemfields Festival was happening in the Anakie-Rubvale-Sapphire region, so out we went to discover that we weren’t all that into gem fossicking.
So, we wondered around the market stalls where serious gem fossickers were doing business trying to sell their gems, which were rather tiny and insignificant but still bloody expensive. The best part of the trip was having lunch at Pat’s Café which had the biggest crowd of all the places we visited on the trip (LOL)
Summing up…
- Accommodation – Emerald Cabin & Caravan Village (07) 4982 1300
- Cost per night – $35.00 (@ 11-Aug-2022)
- Stayed for – 3 nights (could have been 2)
- Facilities – Single room toilet/shower suites – always had wet floors
- CP Location – 64 Opal St Emerald
- Our rating/score – 5/10
- Was it a nice town to visit? – Not to bad
- Activities & places of interest – Really disappointed of what attractions were on offer
- Tourist info centre? – 3 Clermont St, Emerald (07) 4982 4142
- Would we return? – No
- We rate the town – 5/10
- Overall thoughts – We went to Emerald with big expectations but were pretty disappointed with what there was to do there. Won’t be going back – 3 night stay is probably a bit generous