Lovers Lane Andalusite, Toodyay Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Lovers Lane Andalusite	Occurrence
Toodyay Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Lovers lane is a road, about 5 kilometres south-west of Toodyay in the Jimperding Valley, part of the Avon valley. Fetherston describes a wide area for andalusite and chiastolite, which extends beyond this valley.

The material occurs within the Jimperding Metamorphic Belt of metasedimentary rocks and subordinate mafic rocks, extending north north-west by over 120 kilometres, 15 to 65 kilometres in width. The rocks show a progressively eastwards increase in metamorphic grade from lower amphibolite to granulite facies, with the presence of andalusite, sillimanite and cordierite indicator minerals.

The andulusite is found as bluish porphyroblasts to 20mm in length in a reddish matrix of mica, quartz, minor feldspar, and sillimanite, and associated with units of quartzite and banded iron formation.

Locations within the belt mentioned is Jimperding Valley, where andalusite crystals are said to be abundant (at least in the early Twentieth Century when described). These occur at several points over a fair distance of 16 kilometres, from Garbadine Hill in the south-east to Julimar Brook in the north-west. They occur in a belt of Precambrian mica schist about 800 metres wide. Imperfect prisms of andalusite are numerous on the surface, forming 5-10% of the ground in some places. Carbon dust causes most of the material to be dark grey, with crystals up to 60mm. They form sharply outlined prisms with poorly defined terminations, some having chiastolite structures. Another site noted is 2.4 kilometres east south-east of Jimperding Valley, where again crystals may reach 60mm in length, but are covered by a coating of coarse mica as an integral part of the crystal. There are many other localities along the belt.

The Lovers Lane occurrence specifically relates to what is marketed as Toodyay Stone, used extensively in building and landscaping in Perth. At the quarry it is a red brown to mid brown quartzite. Within the deposit a quartz dyke has intruded of pale pink coarse grained rose quartz.

Several sheds, stacked stone, and mullock pile are on a flat area at the base of the hill, while the quarry is several hundred metres up the hill to the east. The Black and Tan Quarry, and Salt Valley Quarry are also in the area, also used as a source for Toodyay Stone. Fetherstone states that the last mining at Lovers Lane was in 2004.

References

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