There's nothing quite like the sea breeze and an interesting beach to get the fossicking juices flowing...except finding something to take home too! I recently spent my summer holidays at Phillip Island where I decided to check out fossicking opportunities at Kitty Miller Bay. As I arrived at the Bay, I headed west towards Kennon Head to look for the southern and western basalt dykes that are of geological interest. To get there was a kilometre walk over rocks so it was important to be wearing strong shoes as well as carrying a drink and some sunscreen...

Upon reaching the easternmost basalt dyke of Kennon Head I found some calcite/zeolite nodules buried in the basalt which came away easily with a rock hammer and there were some nice (but small) crystals as well as some blue spots in the stone which I believe might be chalcedony.

Rounding the easternmost point I saw a huge basalt valley of (you guessed it) more rocks to clamber over and a fine example of columnar jointed basalt which looked like tower/steps in shape. Fishermen were having some luck there but I didn't take a photo of the formations - really, you'd have to go and see it for yourself!

Further to the south was one of the recommended dykes which I inspected well and to which in my amateur eye only contained a "ring" of embedded calcite/zeolite nodules in basalt (hardly any crystals) across the dyke which weren't as impressive as the ones on the easternmost dyke. I cast my eyes in the direction of the western dyke and decided to give it a miss (I'd already spent 2 hours walking to this point) and I headed back to the cliff base of Kennon Head.

At the top of the cliff it looked like there was a cave of some sort (was this the breached zeolite chamber 5m x 25m as mentioned in fossicking texts?) I climbed up the cliff, which contained furrows like other people had gone there and when I got to the top it was a little disappointing. Not much zeolite (if any) was evident, it was just a cave with some spiders, a hint of agate and quartz and little else. I travelled down the cliff on my bum, leaving my sunnies in the cave by accident (I remembered them about 2km away). So if anyone finds my sunnies, they are free to a good home...

After the startling descent down the cliff which left me a little tired, I walked back to the middle of the Bay and then towards Watt Point. A basalt dyke extrudes into the sea west of Watt Point and apparently agate can be found in the beach gravels there (according to my researched sources). 

The "beach gravels" in this case turned out to be med to large size rocks and boulders containing agate in small, large, detailed and not-so-detailed pockets in the rock. Rock hammers were useless on this so I found some larger rocks with detailed agate showing through and decided to take them home and find out what was in the middle. I'd done this before on a previous visit and an absolutely stunning detailed agate (though small) was inside.

It's a bit of a lucky dip, finding the right rock to take back - look for globules that are mostly contained within the rock and are less exposed. Also, make sure you go at low tide to have access to the whole platform. 

On my last visit to Kitty Miller Bay I saw the shipwreck of the Speke which ran aground Watt Point in 1906 and it was well worth a visit (although only a bit is left - but good photo opportunity). This time, I decided to return to my car with a sackful of rocks and the memory of a nice afternoon.

The northernmost area of Kitty Miller Bay




Basalt cliffs east of Kennon Head - where I found the calcite/zeolite nodules.




Dried calcite/zeolite nodule in basalt - lots of fine and clear crystals inside.




Fishermen standing on the top of the interesting columnar jointed basalt display.
(Facing Watt Point from Kennon Head)




Exposed 40mm agate in basalt found in Watt Point "beach gravels".