Before you get too excited.. there are no rubies at Ruby Gap. In March 1886 explorer David Lindsay followed the Hale River until it cut through the ranges at Glen Annie Gorge. Below the gorge he found the river bed strewn with small transparent gemstones, he assumed were rubies.

By May 1887, 200 prospectors were at the site, companies were formed, gemstones shipped off to London. Then it was found the 'rubies' were in fact high quality garnets. The rush collapsed, and many returned to the coast. A few began to wander, discovering the nearby Arltunga goldfield.

Ruby Gap is 38 kilometres east of Arltunga, but requires a high clearance 4 wheel drive to negotiate the very rough track. The gorge itself is one of the more impressive in central Australia. Towards the entrance to the gorge, the sands of the Hale river bed appear stained red in patches. A closer inspection reveals it is full of transparent garnets. They are tiny, and are of novelty value only.

List of minerals for each chemical element

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

Australia

Amadeus BasinBasin
Arunta OrogenOrogen
- Aileron ProvinceGeologic Province
Central Australian ElementCraton
Western Australia
- Warakurna Large Igneous ProvinceGeologic Province

Australian PlateTectonic Plate

Arunta BlockOrogenic Belt

This page contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.

References

Ruby Gap Nature Park Fact Sheet, Northern Territory Government,(date?)

The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser newspaper (1888), The Ruby Fields in Central Australia, 19/05/1888

Evening Journal newspaper (Adelaide) (1888), The Ruby Fields of Central Australia, 23/05/1888

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper (1888), Return of Mr. Lindsay. The MacDonnell Ruby Fields. Active Volcano in Central Australia, 25/12/1888

The Express and Telegraph newspaper (Adelaide) (1888), South Australian Precious Stones. Thousands of Rubies and Garnets, 22/07/1887

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper (1888), Australian Garnets or Australian Rubies- Which? (To the Ed.), 11/05/1888

traveloutbackaustralia.com (2016) http://traveloutbackaustralia.com/ruby-gap-nature-park.html

Quick NavTop Other Regions References

Mindat.org® is an outreach project of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Mindat® and mindat.org® are registered trademarks of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy.
Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2026, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph and Ida Chau.
Content on this site may not be used to train, fine-tune, or otherwise develop artificial intelligence or machine learning models without prior written permission - see our Terms & Conditions.
To cite: Ralph, J., Von Bargen, D., Martynov, P., Zhang, J., Que, X., Prabhu, A., Morrison, S. M., Li, W., Chen, W., & Ma, X. (2025). Mindat.org: The open access mineralogy database to accelerate data-intensive geoscience research. American Mineralogist, 110(6), 833–844. doi:10.2138/am-2024-9486.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: October 20, 2026 00:39:24 Page updated: August 27, 2025 09:25:11

Go to top of page