Day 1: Arriving in the Central Highlands hub of Emerald, measure your height against the world’s biggest Van Gogh sunflower painting at 25 metres high located in Morton Park. For a contrast of plant life, stop by the 250 million year old fossilized tree outside Emerald’s Town Hall, then stroll through Emerald’s Botanic Gardens. Drive the short distance to the quaint town of Rubyvale where you can fossick for your fortune! The digging work is already done, so you can buy a bucket of wash and start searching straight away. There’s also a walk-in mine tour where you’ll learn all about the process of underground sapphire mining. Your overnight destination along the Capricorn Highway is the town of Alpha – claimed by locals as the beginning of the west. The Alpha area has a rich collection of fossilised wood, also called petrified wood. Did you know that the petrified wood of the Alpha area are claimed to be much older than the dinosaur bones found near Winton?