Miners Heritage Walk In Mine Tour — Attraction in Rubyvale

Could have been 5 stars but one staff member ruined that…

Fantastic look into mining for gems and the underground mine was an excellent experience. Interesting stuff and the tiny bats living in there were a great bonus to see

Danielle the tour guide was great but the informative tour moved at a fast pace, maybe a bit too quick for some. No questions during the tour which was new to us but afterwards she answered the ones we tried to remember until the end well

We stayed in our caravan overnight. Lots of open space to camp, most of the ground not level. $20 over night and must be self contained which was fair and saved a drive 1st thing in the morning for our mine tour

Lady that runs the place (we think) left a sour impression on us though Abrasive, blunt and unwelcoming attitude. We listened to her answer a phone inquiry so it wasn’t just us She roasted us for not checking in on arrival but the showroom/office was deserted when we arrived early afternoon. We called out, no one, called the phone number no answer or return call. Doors wide open with $1000s worth of jewellery inside, odd, came back to office again, still no one. Figured it must be a laid back type deal so we’ll just set up sort it all out in the morning. Whats a $20 camp fee vs $100 or so for the tour and fossicking right??? Mind you, we camped about as close as you were allowed (lots of signs with rules around) to the office/fossicking area so if the caretakers lived on site it would have been easy to see us and wander down to say Hi. We were the only people there. May as well have been an abandoned property as far as we were concerned.

Walking into the showroom, no greeting or acknowledgment of a customer arriving. Almost like visitors are not welcome..

After fossicking, she roasted us for not returning sieves (wasn’t made aware it was such a sin). “People steal them”… not sure why no staff were assisting the 10 or so people fossicking so they could keep an eye on these thieves…. We could have used some guidance as to what to look for etc She was also blunt as a brick axe when I asked for a plastic sealed bag to put the kid’s gems in so they wouldn’t get lost out in the dirt. Other visitors had them but we weren’t given any. Questioning me like it was my fault I didn't have a $0.01 plastic bag. And then she rushed a blunt sorting of our ‘gems’, no interest in teaching us much without us asking questions and forcing an answer. Felt like she just wanted us to take our rocks and leave

Also overheard her ask another staff member if the kids were touching anything in the showroom. Not sure what you expect when you have a store open to the public and put a heap of things on display. FYI the kids were keeping to themselves very much so

Good luck selling any jewellery with that sort of customer service (and price tags)

Extremely poor host, people skills and complete...

We were very excited to do this tour today. My mother called ahead to check about booking and spoke with Mark saying the next tour was at 1.15pm she then inquired on the price and described our group dynamics. He then explained the prices and lead her to believe we arrive and pay at 1.15pm. We then waited till 1.15pm (2hrs wait time). Arrived early, went to the coffee shop on site next door and had a lovely and well catered for experience. We then proceeded to head next door to pay for our tour. We were immediately greeted with an abrupt and quite frankly a rude conversation with Mark when we wanted to pay saying “what’s your name”, and that well he only had this person, that person and someone else and if that’s not you then you didn’t book. My mother then proceed to explain the conversation on the phone and he stopped her mid sentence saying “he always asks for the persons name when he takes a booking on the phone and that he would have asked for her name ”. My mother then said well i don’t recall you asking for mine and that he had lead her to believe over the phone that she would have a tour at 1.15pm and had explained the price etc. He then said well the next tour is at 2.15pm. This was not great for us as we had a 4 and 5 year old who didn’t have any more patience by this stage. We then said we would pass as we did not won’t to wait that long. I then over heard a lady ask him if she was on this tour which was departing at 1.15pm and his response was “well i don’t know, are you together with this guy?” She responded she was and her was like “well yes” It seemed to be that his pleasantries were definitely lacking and his hospitality was zero. It was a complete turn off and a massive disappointment to turn up to what was going to be an exciting day with being treated with arrogance and complete disrespect. Would I recommend the place no, would I ever return no. Not only was it disgusting to hear someone talking to my mother like this which was obviously just a miscommunication along the way but the display of unkindness and rudeness to treat other people in front of my young children is a disgrace. I hope his attitude improves. Miners Heritage needs a lesson in hospitality and wholesome values that belong to a beautiful and friendly country town...

Had a fantastic time with the family at this tourism experience at Rubyvale.

We did the mine tour, which was excellent. One of my kids did get claustrophobic and had to head up earlier, but the guide was brilliant and really accommodating.

Paying to do the fossicking was worth the expense. One bucket was more than enough for an hour of fun. Be sure to take your funds inside, the team will tell you if you found any sapphires! The kids found way more little gems then expected, they used their spending money to buy a bag of fossicking rocks to take home 🤣

My only comment would be that this provider does not use an online booking system, so correspondence was via email, would have liked to pay in full before arrival. But a small issue.

Again that you to the Miners Heritage Team on a...