Victoria is often seen as the forgotten state when it comes to gem minerals. The history of gems in Victoria is inextricably linked to the discovery of gold in 1851. In 1854, George Milner Stephen publicised for the first time, the discovery of gems in Victoria. These included blue and white sapphires from Ballarat diggings and rubies, topaz and garnet from the River Ovens in northeast Victoria. In 1857, well-known German natural historian Ludwig Becker reported that these same gems could also be found where there was gold.

This text is an accessible reference and identification guide to all gemstones and minerals found in Australia. The book introduces the reader to the chemical and crystal systems of the stones, before providing detailed descriptions of each stone including composition, structure and distribution.

Throughout history, precious stones have inspired passions and poetry, quests and curses, sacred writings and unsacred actions. In this scintillating book, journalist Victoria Finlay embarks on her own globe-circling search for the real stories behind some of the gems we prize most. Blending adventure travel, geology, exciting new research, and her own irresistible charm, Finlay has fashioned a treasure hunt for some of the most valuable, glamorous, and mysterious substances on earth. With the same intense curiosity and narrative flair she displayed in her widely-praised book Color, Finlay journeys from the underground opal churches of outback Australia to the once pearl-rich rivers of Scotland; from the peridot mines on an Apache reservation in Arizona to the remote ruby mines in the mountains of northern Burma. She risks confronting scorpions to crawl through Cleopatra’s long-deserted emerald mines, tries her hand at gem cutting in the dusty Sri Lankan city where Marco Polo bartered for sapphires, and investigates a rumor that fifty years ago most of the world’s amber was mined by prisoners in a Soviet gulag. Jewels is a unique and often exhilarating voyage through history, across cultures, deep into the earth’s mantle, and up to the glittering heights of fame, power, and wealth. From the fabled curse of the Hope Diamond, to the disturbing truths about how pearls are cultured, to the peasants who were once executed for carrying amber to the centuries-old quest by magicians and scientists to make a perfect diamond, Jewels tells dazzling stories with a wonderment and brilliance truly worthy of its subjects.