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Ruby Gap Nature Park

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Ruby Gap Nature Park

Ruby Gap Nature Park or Tyweltherreme is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia consisting of 9,257 hectares and access to it is through Arltunga Historical Reserve.

The park is 150 kilometres from Alice Springs and is the site of Central Australia's first mining rush from 1886. This discovery was shortly before David Lindsay's discovery of gold at Arltunga, 45 kilometers to the west. By May 1888 there were over 260 people in the area prospecting for rubies at the site.

At the beginning of this ruby rush flooded the market for rubies and soon questions arose as to their quality. By June 1888 it was found that the stones being mined were high quality garnets and not rubies. These were of considerably less value then rubies and the market crashed.

The traditional owners of this Country are the Eastern Arrernte people (Ulpmerre arenye) and it is a part of the Ulpmerre estate.

In March 1886 explorer David Lindsay found what he thought were rubies at what became known as Ruby Gap in the bed of the Hale River (Lhere Altera/Arletherre) and he wrote in his diary on 8 March 1886 that he had discovered a granite bar "completely studded with garnets or rubies".

Later, in a report to the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia he wrote in more detail saying:

Still travelling eastward we found water in the sand in a few places, and tin in a granite hill, also a bar of granite completely studded with garnets crossing the creek. Just above this point, when scratching for water under a rocky cliff, I found some quantity of beautiful gem sand, containing many garnets and some red stones of great brilliancy, which, after careful examination, I believe to be rubies.

— David Lindsay, Explorations in the Northern Territory of South Australia (1888), The Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch

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