What is a yowah nut?

Yowah nuts are not always shaped like nuts but that is name they are given, they have a unique formation that happened when the Great artesian basin was an inland sea. Yowah nuts are formed by layers of ironstone concretions, the most sought after Yowah nuts have a crystal centre in ironstone. Often the nuts are filled with incredible patterns and pictures created by the process of the host rocks cracking and the opal infilling the cracks, voids and cavities. This is known as matrix opal. Koroit nuts are very similar to Yowah nuts and this formation of opal in nuts can only be found on the Yowah and Koroit opal fields in South West Queensland.

Yowah nut, ironstone infilled with precious opal.

Close up of Koroit matrix opal, mother nature is an incredible artist!