Living the dream!

Good day fellow Gold lovers

Josh is the name and I'm new to the game. I work as loco drivers assistant for 6 months of the year at a Sugar Mill. My Youngest brother does the same, I'm 24 he's 22. We had decided last year we were going around Australia during the 'slack' which is Jan-may when we are waiting for the Sugar Crush to start again. But instead of doing it in 2012, He bought himself a nice pajero and we opted to put it off until 2013. It's getting so close now

We were talking about our trip one particular day and i mention i wanted to buy a gold detector for when we were near some gold fields, that I could pull out and learn how to use while we were there, I'm still very new to this as is he. He loved the Idea of gold prospecting as much as I did and had a look around and decided on the Minelab eureka gold detector, no I didn't end up purchasing it. I was advised if I truly wanted to find some maybe payable gold I would be better off spending that little bit extra and getting the gpx5000. and we have decided we will be buying 2 of these bad boys for our trip within a month.

We are going to spend a fair bit of our time in W.A. going from gold field to gold field and doing some 'raw prospecting' along the way and I'm well aware it's going to be incredibly hot. I've worked in the outback and I live in Tropical north Queensland so i'm used to the heat. Now I realize the only knowledge I have is the stuff I have read in books and Watched on YouTube and are well aware that we may not find gold or much of it, We are pretty much doing this for experience and we happily accept this (I'm still pretty optimistic though) as we are new to this but I've already adopted the 'Dig every target' philosophy. We'll have 5 months until we need to be back for work, 2 gpx 5000's. Plenty of gear to survive for a few weeks in the bush at a time before we need to head into town and top up and try again. We were going to take 2 motorbikes on a trailer but we have kept that idea until next year maybe, I'm still pretty keen on taking at least a quad bike because we are taking a good quality off road trailer for supplies.

We have a really unique opportunity that I would imagine a lot of people would be so happy to have. So we are definitely going to utilizes it to its full potential. Who knows we might even find a Retirement nugget and only have to work part time for the rest of our lives.. Haha!
JB

best of luck

G'day JB. Welcome to our forum.

Careful research and planning is the key here and then some.Knowledge doesn't come easy in this game,especially when searching for something far older than dinosaurs.Dreams of finding a big slug or a large patch of gold are always good,they keep the spirit alive.So I can only wish you the best of luck in your endevours chasing the immortal mellow yellow.

Cheers and happy hunting kon61.

G'day JB and welcome to the forum... Hope all goes well on your new adventure... Good luck with it all...

Cheers.

Mike.

Hi Joshybear,
and welcome to the forum.
I wish you a good luck and that's just one little part of this hobby.
Preparation is the rest.
Detecting in WA (not talking about my experiences-still on my bucket list)according to people who detect there and some who do that for a living -do not detect in summer months.
I am sure you will get a few responses and few advises from our members from WA.
Going for 5000GPX is a great idea.
Read lot of posts here and you will get an idea about settings etc.
Good luck and take care.

Young people like 2 of you and like all young people have no fear.Respect the nature and it will look after you.Keep in mind some parts of this country are unforgiving and there is no room for mistakes.

GoldEN

When you do live your dream , be careful if you read the last few posts on this forum man dies of snake bite. one dies in heat other one in hospital its not fun it needs care and planning and have all the right gear and then some.But you will enjoy as we all do. and i sure wish you all the best in your venture.

Gday

I have worked in the tropics as well, and can tell you that the heat in the WA goldfields during the summer is not a high humidy type of heat, its very very dry, the sort of dry that can dehydrate a slice of fresh bread to a toast like texture in a minute or so.

It has the same effect on your body and if you intend to detect during the warm months say from November through to April or so you need to be well and truly prepared, on the warmer days you will find that it can reach the high forties, I have been out when it reached 47.6 over a three or four days period and there are things that go on that you may not even consider, for instance bees and wasps get really active around any water source and get seriously agressive when you bother them, on one occasion I got swarmed and got stung three times on my neck and back, I am not allergic to them but being 100 odd klm from town would have been in trouble if I had been.

Snakes are more active at night as well, so make sure you keep the boots on when sitting or walking about the camp, being from Taipan country you should be aware of them, but here they can even be active when its really cold as well so dont let that fool you that they are not about.

As far as looking after yourself goes there are a couple of things that I feel are really helpful to know, try and avoid high sugar drinks in the heat, they make you thirstier and the more you drink the worse you will feel, cool water, hot tea, and electrolyte drinks such as staminade which you can buy in a powder form and add it to your water bottle or to a cup of water a few times a day this will help maintain your body electrolyte levels and you will feel better and get less cramps, beer is good in the evening as well, and I find mid strength beer better as you can have a few and wont suffer any further dehydration with the lower alcohol content.

Limit your detecting to the early cooler hours of the morning and early evening, hole up in the shade during the hotter part of the day, some people detect at night but if you are going to do this then you are better doing it together than going it alone in different directions, one detecting and the other keeping watch and carrying the gps as very its easy to get lost in some of the places here, and in the heat you will not last more than a day or two at the most without adequate water supplies, also some areas have a feral dog issue and they can be dangerous to a lone detectorist.

Make sure you know exactly where you are and that you know the way out, in case you have to bug out during the night as we have some severe bushfires and some areas have limited access, these places are better avoided in the heat, at times it may be wiser to stay in the caravan park or at least close to town, or at the very least scout the area you are in and decide on a safe place that you can head to if you have to.

Lastly carry as much water as you can, plenty of food, spares for the car etc, as there are places that you will not be able to get even basics, the must haves are a gps, radio, phone, some reliable form of communication, the teltra next g network phones have the best coverage here, with either a car kit or at the least fit a car phone antenna to some poles for height that you can put up off the roof rack or something for more coverage, sattelite phones can be hired as well.

Anyway I hope some of these hints will be of use to you, if you plan well ahead and take common sense precautions you should have a great trip and will enjoy your WA detecting experience.

cheers

stayyerAU

G'day JB and welcome to the forum. You have a great plan and should have a heaps of fun. Stayyerau's post is spot on - be prepared. I also believe that once you are out of mobile phone range - which is most of the real Australia - it is worth carrying a sat phone or an HF Radio in the vehicle. You can get subsidies of up to 80% for sat phones. My is an Inmarsat Pro and cost us the princely sum of $123.75 brand new with the Government contributing 80% of the price, plus credit in $25 multiples which last for two years.

The other thing worth considering is to do some training with a really experienced operator or maybe a Gold Safari as part of your trip. That experiece will be invaluable to your success rate.

Have a great trip

John

Hey All JB here.

Thank you all for the well wishes and Advice. I will always fill in my holes and take all my junk.

stayyerAU, thank you for all that. I truly appreciate it! The 6 P's, Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. I never even thought about the bees and wasps. haha, I'm not allergic to them but i do have a trick to instantly stop the pain from bee and wasp stings that i will gladly share with you all! HONEY, apply honey to the sting and I can promise you will never feel relief like it. I have done this many of times and it's worked every time. But Snakes, I have plenty of experience avoiding them. We work around sugar cane paddocks and i can tell you, damn we see some snakes. and never a friendly one mind you. haha but It is something that I'm always aware of. we'll be taking more then enough water to survive a month if something was to go wrong. Same with food and i like the idea of staminade, I used to drink it when I was a chef.. I know that mostly everything we do will be for experience but i'm so fine with that 1 piece of yellow on the entire trip would give me enough hope to give it another shot again.
John, thank you for telling me about the government contribution, I hadn't read that any where yet.

Cheers JB

Hi Joshybear, just following on from John's post, here is a link to the govt subsidy- http://www.dbcde.gov.au/mobile_services/the_satellite_phone_subsidy_scheme

I applied but fell under the 50% rebate/ subsidy for a satellite phone.

Annie

Thank you for the Website Annie, I truly appreciate it