Unearth gem of a getaway

The sparkling red dirt road brings a smile to my face. It's the first indication of what lies ahead.

Gemtree, a tiny caravan park smack in the dusty heart of Australia, lures thousands of people each year.

At first glance, it's a hot, dry and unremarkable place. At 140km northeast of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, it's seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

But like many treasures, its beauty and tranquillity is hidden below the surface of the parched red earth.

About 5000 would-be fossickers visit the park each year to learn to find gems abundant in the semi-arid Harts Range of Central Australia.

"We like to think we are a different sort of a destination," Gemtree founder Graham Short says.

"When people have looked at all the gaps and gorges, this is something they can do physically and get their hands dirty. It's a good break."

Gemtree Caravan Park is owned by Graham and his wife June, who abandoned their careers in the computer industry in Adelaide to build the park 15 years ago.

The 100ha caravan park offers a choice of accommodation from camping to cabins and provides daily fossicking tours, including a guide and equipment.

"We've been taking people out fossicking every day for 15 years," Mr Short says. "We cater really for people who have never fossicked before, and you have a guide."

Visitors have the choice of two daily fossicking tours - for blood red garnets and the rarer natural zircon.

Today, we are hunting for garnet.

Our vehicles stocked with various picks, shovels and pans, we drive in slow procession along the Plenty Highway before turning off into an unmarked dirt road.

There are about 20 in our tour - mostly families - and the group is buzzing with anticipation as we step out of our vehicles and gather on an uneven dirt plain dotted with native bushes.

"Ninety-eight per cent of what you dig will be rubbish," our guide Peter Cook shouts as he demonstrates how we should dig up the earth and place it in the pans to be sieved and sorted.

He shakes the rustic metal sieve, tossing out sticks, leaves and clumps of dirt.

"Look for things black and shiny," he says, washing the remains in a rusty tub of water.

"Just grab hold of them [the little shiny rocks] and don't even bother to look at it, and keep going.

"It probably won't be red when you find it, it will probably be black."

We each go off to dig for our own treasure.

"I think I've found one," someone exclaims from behind me minutes later.

It is hard work but soon we all have a modest collection of potential gems.

Would-be fossickers can spend as long as they like at the site, but confident about my little collection and exhausted and sweaty, I head back to Gemtree to have the loot evaluated by the professionals.

The Gemtree store has a gem cutter and jeweller on hand, to enable lucky fossickers to take their rock through to a fine-looking stone.

"What I'm looking for is anything that's glassy and clear that may be gem quality," Mr Short says, as he holds up the potential gems to the light, back at the store.

I end up with four or five small gems and a huge smile on my dirty face.

"No one gets rich fossicking," Mr Short says.

He describes fossicking as an addictive activity, which can quickly turn into a lifelong hobby.

"It becomes a real passion, a real hobby, because you never know what you are going to find when you fossick," he says.

"It's something that families or couples particularly can do together. I've seen people progress from coming here for the first time and doing our tour, and a year or so later they are back.

"Some people who come here, they are fossickers, it's their hobby. They stay in the park and go out and do their own thing. We might get people who stay here for months at a time and they go off into the ranges there and they are happy just to find a [rare] piece."

* Karen Michelmore travelled to Gemtree with assistance from the Northern Territory Tourist Commission.

- AAP

Getting there

Gemtree Caravan Park is 140km northeast from Alice Springs. Head north along the Stuart Highway for 70km and then turn right on to the Plenty Highway for a further 70km.

Where to stay

Accommodation ranges from camping to cabins.

What to do

Daily fossicking tours from $A30 for an adult and $A5 for a child.