My neighbour, John Howe, was working through another load of sapphire wash from Frazer Creek at Sevenoaks (near Inverell) when he found a brown faceted stone. (Please see the photos in my photo collection)
We thought it might be a limonite pseudomorph, but it proved to be paramagnetic, had a whitish streak and a hardness of about 5.5, and was able to cause my electroscope to discharge in the manner of radioactive minerals. I believe it is monazite, but I am puzzled by the presence of inclusions of feldspar in the mass. Is it possible that this is a later growth of a monazite phenocryst in a feldspathic granite, or the growth of a poikiloblastic crystal of monazite during metamorphism of a feldspathic rock (although there is no visible alignment of feldspar grains)?
Has anybody had experience of such specimens? Is feldspar reactive with monazite during metamorphism or igneous crystallisation?
This is an intriguing specimen. We will be keeping a watch for more examples.

UPDATE: I have just remeasured the hardness using a better piece of apatite (previous sample was a bit granular) and the hardness of the mineral under consideration is 5. The interfacial angle for the two adjacent faces seen in the specimen is a little over 30 degrees.