Mt Hay Queensland

Thirty eight kilometres from Rockhampton is Mt Hay, the birthplace of 120 million year thundereggs. and home to Aradon Pewtor.

http://www.mythaygems.com.au

There is a caravan park and cabin accommodation on the property which has been run by the same family for 49 years. The shop sells thunderegg and gemstone products and there is a fossicking field where you can dig through the heaps of soil searching for your own thunder-egg.

You can have a short lesson on  how to find the eggs and then you look through the fossick area searching for rounded rocks that you wash, and if they have a skin, then there could be a magic thunder egg inside. All the rocks are beautiful as many of them are from volcanic cores, and they are various colors and shapes.

 

When you finally decide you have collected enough, you take them to the shop where they are cut with an electric saw for a small fee…..

 

And here are the ones I collected in a few hours…

https://www.aradon.com.au/mt-hay-gemstone-tourist-park/ p

Mt. Hay is the remains of an extinct ancient volcano, which was last active about 120 million years ago. When it was a rumbling volcano millions of gas bubbles were present in the molten rhyolite lava .. it is these gas ‘pockets’ that became thundereggs. Thundereggs or volcanic birthstones are the result of these “pockets” filling with siliceous liquids containing impurities and trace elements, which crystallize as they cool, and when cut in half, reveal many different colours and patterns.
https://www.aradon.com.au/mt-hay-gemstone-tourist-park/