Matt noticed something glimmering in the dirt after a heavy downpour… what he discovered left him in disbelief

An Australian has shared the incredible moment he discovered a rare gemstone while hiking in the Outback.

Professional sapphire miner Matt Betteridge revealed his discovery of a 394-carat sapphire on TikTok last month.

Mr Betteridge and his partner Amber run their family business Betteridge Sapphires from the heart of the state’s mining region in Central Queensland.

“I’m headed to a place called Reward, if you’re heading this way. But all areas produce good stone,” Mr Betteridge said in the video.

Mr Betteridge said the area had been inundated with rain and he decided to do some more fossilising before the wet weather arrived.

Footage showed him digging with his hands before making the discovery.

‘Look! Wow!’ he exclaimed.

“It’s getting bigger!”

Footage showed him digging with his hands before making the discovery

“I just want to see how big this thing is, come on, wow, look at that!” You know what, luck has been on my side lately.”

Mr. Betteridge then pulled the sapphire out of the ground.

“Wow, look at that guys!” he said.

‘This place has been known for big bombs in the past, but wow guys…that’s huge!

“So I’ll have to clean it up before I see any color in it.”

The video featured Mrs. Betteridge holding the cleaned sapphire up to the camera.

“It’s all cleared up here… 394 carats of Australian sapphire,” she said.

“Now it’s summer here right now and the heat is terrible.”

Mr Betteridge said the 394-carat sapphire (pictured) was just ‘waiting to be found’

“But if you can handle a little bit of heat, we also get these amazing rain showers that bring out the sapphires.”

Mr. Betteridge told it Yahoo he had been ‘out for a walk’ in the gem fields after the rain and ‘saw something glittering in the road’.

He said the 394-carat sapphire was simply “waiting to be found.”

Mr. Betteridge said he and Mrs. Betteridge decided not to cut the sapphire because of its commercial value of only $1,000.

“It’s not going to be faceted into a big jewel or anything,” he said.

‘It stays exactly as it is because it’s a pretty cool crystal structure.

‘It will remain that way because of its natural beauty. I want to cut it off because it’s just sacrilege, because it’s so beautiful.”

The couple regularly posts their sapphire finds on social media.

Earlier this year, their seven-year-old son Riley found a 14.5-carat sapphire worth up to $10,000 just 200 meters from his home in the middle of Queensland’s gem fields at Rubyvale, near Rockhampton.

Footage of his incredible find has been viewed almost three million times on TikTok, with many viewers leaving messages of congratulations for the seven-year-old.

“That definitely gave him a day off,” one social media user joked.