Australian Turquoise: Small Deposits, a Long Record, and a Provenance Question

In 1915 Joseph Pogue surveyed the world’s known turquoise localities and gave Australia one verdict:

“Turquois occurs in Australia in the states of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland; but thus far the Australian deposits have not proved of any commercial moment.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 43 ^[1]

He named the places. At Edi, in the King River district of Victoria, turquoise formed thin veins in black slate, much of it green, “but occasionally thin veins of good color are obtained.” ^[1] At Bodalla, New South Wales, it was found in 1894 on Mummuga Creek and mined in 1896, but “little of the mineral proved marketable.” ^[1] He noted smaller finds near Benalla in Victoria and at Wagonga in New South Wales, and museum specimens from Queensland. ^[1] Of Edi he wrote, simply, “The future of the locality is doubtful.” ^[1]

Pogue also sorted turquoise deposits by type, and placed Australia’s with the ones that sit in sedimentary rock, shale and slate, with no apparent connection to any igneous body:

“The Sinai and Australian occurrences are the principal representatives of this type.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 63 ^[1]

Ninety-five years later, the Lowrys described a different Australia, in the north:

“The deposits were discovered in 1967 by John Cumming, the Australian deposits are located in the northeastern Northern Territory and also North Western Queensland.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 66 ^[2]

The two books don’t contradict each other so much as describe different fields. Pogue’s are the southern finds of the 1890s; the Lowrys’ are the northern deposits found seven decades later. Neither book names an Australian mine in production.

Victoria’s heritage register adds what happened next at Edi. Turquoise was found in the district in 1887, and in 1893 eight places between Edi and Cheshunt were being worked by open cuts and tunnels. ^[3] Most of the stone was exported to England and Germany for inlay and cameo work. By 1912 the field’s main promoter had mined about 3,000 carats of saleable stone, and work seems to have stopped around 1921. A survey in the 1960s found the deposits not commercially viable. ^[3] (One source: the register, citing the Geological Survey of Victoria.)

The northern deposit the Lowrys describe is best known as the Tosca workings on Ammaroo Station, north-east of Alice Springs. Exploration companies worked it from 1968 into the early 1970s. ^[4] A dealer reports that this work found mostly carving and specimen material, with only traces of gem grade. ^[5] (Dealer.)

The site is also a registered Aboriginal sacred site. ^[6] In 2022 ore was dug there without the approval of the sacred-sites authority, and in January 2026 a Darwin court convicted the person responsible. The court heard that turquoise from that dig had been sold. ^[6] We record this because it bears on any Northern Territory stone offered today: its provenance should be documented.

We found no source documenting active, legal gem-turquoise mining anywhere in Australia in 2025 or 2026. What reaches the market appears to be old stock and specimens. ^{[5], [7]} One dealer reports a small deposit near Broken Hill, New South Wales, worked until 1996. (One source.) ^[7]

Pogue’s accounts give the range: green-tinged veins at Edi with the occasional good blue, and at Bodalla “a fairly good blue color, fading on exposure.” ^[1] A dealer describes Northern Territory stone from sky blue to pale green. ^[5] (One source.) Pyrite, weathered to rusty limonite, runs through the Edi material. ^[1]

No laboratory data on Australian turquoise treatment turned up. Each stone has to be disclosed on its own. In our terms, clear-resin stabilizing makes a stone Stabilized; dye or a hardening process makes it Enhanced. See What Do These Confusing Turquoise Terms Mean?

“Australian jade” is chrysoprase, a green chalcedony, sold under that name in Asian markets. It is neither jade nor turquoise. ^[8] Australian variscite, from Western Australia, is a different phosphate mineral whose webbed green can pass for turquoise at a glance. ^[9]