Australian Outback Adventures: Yowah Opal Festival (Cheapest Opals in Australia)

January 16, 2016 Unknown 0 Comments

Whether you are looking for a cheap opal or a true outback experience, the Yowah Opal Festival should be on your itinerary.  Australia is known for many of its natural resources and opals are probably on the top of that list.  The cheapest way to purchase it would be through a wholesale resource just like any other commodity.

Opal on display at the exhibit
What is this festival?

The Yowah Opal Festival is hands-down the most prestigious annual gathering in the opal trade.  Businesses are looking for opal miners who can provide them quality opal at a good price for their business, opal miners are here to find buyers. Although the festival isn't held for the average Joe, it gives everyone who desires a precious gem a chance to get them at a bargain!
the marketplace 

At Night:

The Festival starts out with a night of bonfire that is taller than all of us.  The firewood required was so chunky, they had to use construction machinery to drive it over.  Everyone gathers around the fire while we wait for the all-you-can-eat BBQ.  We eat to our heart's content with live folk music playing in the background on the little stage.  Most of the participants knows each other since it's not that big of an industry and all the miners, polishers and sellers have some business with one another at any point in time.
Not much lighting aside from these and the fire
A miner looking into the fire

Chris enjoying the warmth of the fire

really good BBQ buffet resembling American Southern food
embers flying high
In The Morning:

The booths are set up before the break of dawn, ready for buyers to have their treasure hunt. You can always try to bargain for better deals than priced.  The more you buy from the same stall, the cheaper it can get.  Often times they sell more than just opals.  You can find all sorts of gems including pearls and fossils around the market.  Walk around, talk to people, don't commit until you're really ready.  Oh and definitely bring at least a couple hundred dollars of cash with you, most if not all stalls are cash only.




 Tips on Finding Good Opal:

 Many vendors will have buckets of opals sitting in water.  Opals have a crystalline structure that absorbs water, making it easier for light to travel and thus reflect from.  Make sure the opal stone shines even without water.  While choosing your opals, dry the surface and set them aside. Decide at the end which piece of opal strikes your fancy.

The price of a piece of opal is fairly subjective.  There is no actual scale for the pricing and it is fairly flexible in terms of market value.  You look for the value of an opal through three characteristics: the patterns, the color of light reflected through the opal, and the way light reflects off of it.  The rare colors in opals are blacks and reds.  Patterns can range from matrixes (kind of holographic)  to pinfires (dots/ rays of holographic patterns).  Marine opals are mainly blue and green and will cover the whole surface of the gem.  Boulder opals are stones or fossolized trees embedded with streaks of opals through them.  The small moonstone like opals with firepin or matrix patterns through them can be very valuable due to the rarity of pure opals.  Overall, how much you like a piece of opal should be the deciding factor on whether you will purchase it.  There is no point in having some really expensive piece of rock with you if you don't love it.


There are also exhibits set up for rare opals and opals that has been incorporated in sculptures and other art forms.
Location: 

The bargains are extremely attractive, but the festival is never crowded with tourists due to its geological disposition.  The location of this annual festival is in the heart of the great outback of Australia.  For those who are unfamiliar with the outback, I will try to put things into perspective.  Yowah is a small town/ community.  According to the 2006 census, Yowah had a population of 142.  We visited the town in July 2015, according to the locals we spoke to the population has since then decreased to around 50 residents.  This town is 132 km (82mi) from Brisbane, the nearest city.  The annual festival is the single big event that gathers several hundred attendants to help support the town.
putting things into perspective, Yowah is over 13 hours away from the closest city.

Accomodation:

The town is too small with too little traffic over other times of the year for any accomodation.  Your best bet is camping in a tent or sleep in your car.  It's quite nice to be able to chit chat with our neighbors, we learned lots about opals quality and mining.



Our bed in serenity.

A few of our own purchases:

 We have purchased quite a few boulder opals that we absolutely love ranging from $5-20 a piece depending on how rare the pattern and colors were.  (the ones shown below were less than $10 each) Throughout our travels we seeked for similar opals to estimate pricing and most were 2-5 times more expensive than our purchases.



If you love the adventure and have the time and money around July, I would highly recoomend that you visit the Yowah Opal Festival.  The opal miners are really hurting at the moment as demand is plummeting.  By visiting, you can support local businesses and people's livlihood.  The opals are cheaper than you can find anywhere else and definitely genuine as experts are all in the area to call out fawks gems.  If you are interested, you might even be able to make a bit of profit by reselling the opals you obtain there elsewhere!

Would you go to the Yowah Opal Festival if you're in the country around July?  Which one of the exhibit pieces did you like most?

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Moments of 2015

January 08, 2016 Unknown 0 Comments



2015 has witnessed the start of this blog and the start of my first year-long-travel journey.  This past year I have said goodbye to my frist full-time job and went to the opposite of the globe to roam the land down under named Australia.

note: a week into the year and I am finally posting this "year in review" blog post.  Just once again shows that life throws curve balls and you just have to roll with it.  For more of my life excuses scroll to the bottom.  I will also do my best to write posts regarding all the adventure in this past year and link it on here, so stay tuned!

Jan: Houston, Texas

Perks of working in Human Resources for a medium sized company growing national is the occasional travel involved.  I was travelling to Houston, Texas with a coworker doing recruitment.  The sad part is, I came down with influenza after the flight.  Overall, Texas was still a blast( can't say no to the southern food)!

Houston we have landed

Feb: LA, California

Saying goodbye was tough.  It was a cocktail of excitement, fear, hope, and insecurities.  I am saying goodbye to a stable income to welcome something foreign and unknown.  With how uncomfortable everything felt, I knew I was doing the right thing.  We can only grow from pushing our boundaries to new limits.

here's the cinnamon bun larger than my face my coworkers gave me as good bye gift. 


March: Melbourne, Victoria

We arrived in Australia in late February.  March was filled with "firsts".  We saw our first koalas, our firstt kangaroos and wallabies, our first time road tripping on the Great Ocean Road, our first time exploring Melbourne, our first encounter with leeches, our first time going to couch surfing parties, and our first time buying a car together and travelling in it.

April: Melbourne, Australia

 We started staying at the first relatively long-term home in Point Cook, Victoria.  We started our job search and we both got into the restaurant industry.  We met some good friends and I even learned screen printing with local teens! ( I think she only took me in thinking I'm still in my teens)
community workshop, learning how to screen print!

May: Melbourne, Australia

 We worked a bit and started house sitting for a friend.  Lots of good food involved when you're working with catering events and people don't eat it all!
free food to take home! working perks!

June: Cunnamulla, Queensland

 We found work for the both of us in Cunnamulla, Queensland and decided to give it a try.  The outback town took us two days to drive to and it was just an insane experience to say the least.  Probably the lowest point of our Australia travels, but it definitely puts things into perspective. A post will be made for the full experience.

What became our home for two months.

July: Yowah, Queensland

 When we have saved up a decent amount, we departed and explored just a little bit more of the outback before heading back to the coast.  We attended the Yowah Opal Festival and found many precious gems at the lowest price in Australia.  The festival was filled with character! From the large bonfire to the people, everything played out under a canopy of stars.  From there we experienced the drastically different weather and scenery Australia has to provide.  It went from dry lands to luscious rainforest to beachy coasts.
mini break on the road. 

August: Northern Queensland

 We were passing the Tablelands when we decided that the beauty of this place calls for more time.  The lakes, the waterfalls, the rainforest, and the wildlife all called out to us.  After our exploration in the tablelands we ventured up north all the way past cook town and back.  We visited Elim beach and traversed through Daintree national park, the only place in the world where two world heritage sites (Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef) meet.

rainforest canopy




Sep: Magnetic Island, Queensland

 The island life was free and beautiful.  On Magnetic Island off of Townsville, Queensland, we have explored land and sea.  There are some beautiful snorkelling trails as well as hiking trails on the island.  We swam with colorful fishes and fed dozens of rock wallabies.  We even caught our first fish on this island!
Sunset on Magnetic Island


Oct: Cairns, Queensland

 We worked a bit before and after Magnetic Island in the Tablelands and decided it was time to continue our exploration once complications arose at work.  (again showing the not so glamous side of traveling)  We spent some time in Cairns exploring the small city/ large town.  The highlight was definitely our snorkeling trip out on the great barrier reef.
Meeting a turtle on the Great Barrier Reef


November: Brisbane, Queensland

We drove down to brisbane in search for our last leg of work.  Aside from the public gardens and lagoon, we didn't enjoy the city too much. So instead we headed a little bit up north to the Sunshine Coast instead. I found work in retail while Chris in construction.  In between work hours we explored a bit of Nossa as well as the beaches and farmers markets on the sunshine coast.
Public Lagoon in Brisbane



December: Sunshine Coast, Queensland

 Well into the holiday season, we were experiencing lots of festivities.  Our first Christmas in the summer with our toes in the sand. (check out our Aussie Christmas here)  We then welcomed the new year at Maloolaba on the Sunshine Coast watching fireworks with friends, ending an adventurous year with the booming sounds of firework.

Dog beach in Sunshine Coast

2015 was a very eventful year, a year of many treasured memories.  As I'm writing this, we are actually preparing for our departure from Australia into South East Asia.  We have received news that Chris's boss sold his company over the holidays just a couple of days ago.  We decided that it is more cost efficient for us to leave earlier than we have planned.  As we occupy ourselves with selling our vehicle and organizing the stuff we have accumulated, we are also very excited to feel "uncomfortable" again.  We don't know what 2016 will bring us.  Whatever it may be, I have a feeling it's going to be great!  Happy New Year everybody!!!

How was  your 2015?  Any highlights, regrets, or things to be grateful about?  Leave a comment down below!

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)