Aussie dad and TikToker discovers $12,000 gem on a walk and goes viral online

Jul 26, 2023

A Queensland dad stumbled across a massive Australian sapphire worth thousands during a night walk around regional Rubyvale.

The epic find was buried in the dirt but gave off a slight glimmer under torchlight, and is valued at approximately $12,500.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Aussie dad finds massive sapphire on a walk.

Stream the world's best reality, entertainment and true crime shows for free on 7Bravo on 7plus >>

Its finder Matt Betteridge has now gone viral on social media after the moment he uncovered the 834ct Australian sapphire was captured on camera.

Matt and wife Amber Betteridge, are avid fossickers who purchased a mining claim and last year quit their jobs to follow their dream of running a sapphire jewellery business.

They made the move up to The Gemfields with their five-year-old son Riley, and founded Betteridge Gemstones.

Matt usually uses a pick and shovel to hand-mine the gems, and Amber facets them into unique rings - but, while this "fair lump of sapphire" may look rough to some, Betteridge says this recent specimen is not worth destroying to extract a faceted stone.

"It is way too awesome as it is," he says in the TikTok.

Approaching a previously dug-out hole, Matt is seen focussing his torch and camera on a nearby pile of dirt which "someone has just recently thrown over their shoulder".

An unlucky miss for the last diggers, made a fortunate find for the Betteridge family.

"Can you see the sparkle in that?" Betteridge can be heard saying in footage of the moment he spots it. "The light catches it at night, that's one of my little secrets."

"Phwoar, it's got some size," he said while scratching at the surrounding dirt, still unaware of magnitude of the gemstone "poking its nose out".

As the entire specimen is pulled from the ground, Betteridge drops it in surprise. "No way! Hooly dooly!"

"I gotta go home and scrub this up, this so huge!"

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW: Matt and Amber Betteridge talk about their chance discovery.

The couple spoke to Sunrise on Monday, and Matt thanked his trained eye for spotting the subtle clue underfoot.

"When you’ve got a trained-eye for it, you can sort of spot the glimmer on the stones. I definitely didn't expect it to be that big," he said.

He added he’d never found a sapphire this big before, noting that it was "not that common".

"Normally we’re looking for really tiny bits of stone, maybe about 5ct or 6ct."

"It's a fair lump of sapphire. It's pretty rare, and we’re pretty stoked."

Their biggest sapphire was dug up just weeks earlier - a 359ct rock - and the couple's largest solid crystal find was an 80ct sapphire which they found in 2012 and say they "regret selling".

Stream Free on