Brisbanite's big adventure to Warwick area SEQ

Hi all

Yes I'm another newbie!... Have recently caught the 'bug' and for some bizzare reason have spent a packet of money without ever having experienced the process of detecting. That 'end-of-contract' spend included the purchase of a GPX5000 (secondhand), a Garmin eTrex 20 (with TOPO map) and a swag of odds and ends I thought would be needed on an excersion. I'd spent the last month reading as much as I could about the subject including forums like this in preparation. Finalised my purchases just yesterday with a carry bag for the newly purchased detector and a pick... thanks to Corey @ Brisbane Gold for helping me with your newbie advice.

I left Brissie (solo) at 4:50am this morning and very much enjoyed the drive up to Warwick where I stopped for brekky at Maccas before heading to Corey's 'spot' out beyond Thane's Creek. Found it no worries at all (apparently years of being stoned had no diminishing affect on memory there!), and after wrestling with my new device (too many cords... how about WIRELESS people?!?) managed to work it out; shortly thereafter began finding 'rubbish'. In fact, I spent the first few hours roaming the area collecting rubbish hits ... lots of bits of rusted iron and trash! Even with the IRON REJECTION up full whack!

I decided to drive over to the Thane's Creek fossicking area and spent the next few hours doing much the same!... Frustratingly learning my equipment by finding bits of everything else GRRRR... I have to say, this 'designated area' is SOOOO SMALLLLLLLLL!!!!!!! WTF???

In total, I spent 6 hours at it with nothing more to show for my effort other than a few bits of rusted metal and a strange lump of ('what I expected to be gold') some metalic substance which sorta looks like tin or lead about 3cm long x about 1cm wide (but looked like a convincing nobbly-formerly-liquid 'nugget' form). Detector went mental for it anyway... tossed it in the garbage when I got home as no matter how much I washed it, it would not turn GOLD!

By the end of the day (1:30pm) I decided that I'd had a lot of fun looking, and learning about (and frustration with) my new equipment, as well as getting some much needed exercise (since I'm usually an office worker and seriously overdue for a fitness hit).

I'd really like to join another or two for similar regular but random adventures in and around (but not limited to) the SE QLD area. If you're interested in either joining a fellow newbie, or sharing your vast experience collected over the millennia then I'd like to hear from you!!! I'm about to do a road trip up to Mackay to visit a relative (as in this weekend) and thought I'd like to go via Rockhampton, Emerald and Claremont with a day's stop to take a lucky dip at the nearest gold-field. If there's any 'reasonable' advise for my trip's diversion being more successful than my first experience please knock yourselves out and let me know! ... though limit the negativity please...

Cheers

Brisbanite

hey there fellow brisbanite, welcome to the elusive gold club, tou will prob find lots more trips without the yellow, bring home mountains of crap, but it is all about research and perseverance, have yet to find a QLD nugget my self but have panned nuggets around the warwick area, happy to help in any way I can m8, or even maybe enjoy company out there looking, as and when time permits,,,

there are a few of us in this area who are very keen when we can to get out there looking

good luck in your escapedes and look forward to hearing of all your finds no matter what they are

happy hunting
Steve and Lea

Welcome to the forum brisbanite, and welcome to the search for the elusive "yella".
Only tip I got for ya is to not expect to get rich but certainly entertain the idea as you get out an about in this great land of ours

P.S. sure beats the gym!

Welcome brisbanite. Yep, Thanes Creek GPA is size of postage stamp and is more of an area for panning IMHO. People seem to prefer to go to Glendon Campgrounds (do search on forum). Good exercise, hey !! Good luck with your new hobby.

No doubt you have checked out info on GPA's at Clermont for your trip.

Annie

Wow!... I had no idea just how 'active' this forum was ... Thank you all for your kind, welcoming words.

Yeah thanks AnnieL; I've researched my Clermont area already (sorry re spelling).

Billy, you're right!... it does sure beat the gym - I got over slugging it out at the gym 20 years ago!; though 'now you tell me' after I invested all this money and time with research you say I'm not gonna get rich!?!?!... GRRRRR!!!!!!

MadMav... you've 'panned' nuggets but not 'detected' them?!?... hmmm.... maybe I aimed too high to begin with?!? Would be good to have some fellow support; even if it's just 'moral'.

Now I want to put it out there... how many of you are successful in locating nuggets in SEQ???

Thanks again...

Hi Brisbanite.
Was out with a mate last weekend Probably at the same spot that Corey suggested, we found one each for the day.The place has been flogged but you can still get the odd one with a bit of time and effort.What coil were you using as iron reject will not work with a mono.I tried the DD and iron reject for the 1st time last weekend and was disappointed with it's performance,it lasted about 10 minutes then back to the mono.
Get in a gold area go low and slow trust your machine and you will find some.
Cheers Phill.

Hi Brisbanite, welcome to the forum. I would suggest you turn off the Iron Reject, as it will only dumb the machine down and you may miss signals.Plus it doesn't work that well anyway. cheers Pete.