Dollys Creek worth detecting

Robo wrote:I've got a little place close to the Dollys Creek area that always produces well. Scrub can be thick, so if there is any back burning done I'll be there in a flash!

Rob...

hi all just a comment on the subject of back burning,and fires. I seem to recall someone years past who lit fires deliberatly so the ground would be cleared, perfect for detecting. He got a stretch in jail for his troubles. I just hope no one on forum will be stupid, or heartless enuff to do such a despicable thing. I for one would if i caught someone lighting fires, cheerfully and with clear concience bend my detector over that persons bloody head.i may be an invalid pensioner but i would be buggered if i would let someone get away with such a bloody stupid and dangerous act. Regards krakenup ken.

krakenup wrote:

Robo wrote:I've got a little place close to the Dollys Creek area that always produces well. Scrub can be thick, so if there is any back burning done I'll be there in a flash!

Rob...

hi all just a comment on the subject of back burning,and fires. I seem to recall someone years past who lit fires deliberatly so the ground would be cleared, perfect for detecting. He got a stretch in jail for his troubles. I just hope no one on forum will be stupid, or heartless enuff to do such a despicable thing. I for one would if i caught someone lighting fires, cheerfully and with clear concience bend my detector over that persons bloody head.i may be an invalid pensioner but i would be buggered if i would let someone get away with such a bloody stupid and dangerous act. Regards krakenup ken.

I would show them how deep a certain mine shaft is .  

Had a pan for a change near the bridge and took home quite a few tiny specs....flour gold I think you would call it....anyway I dumped them in a hand full a dirt and gravel then threw the lot into my home made sluice at home and recovered 100% ... Very happy with that so might take the little sluice out there next time to try .....

does anyone know if there is much water at dollys creek thinking of heaing over tomorrow

There was water a week ago. Just enough for panning and/or small sluicing with a pump if you like. I was down near the bridge. Not sure what is further up. Think you would be OK but will dry up soon.

thanks for that was the water flowing or was it just in pools

Just in pools I am afraid...

watch out for leeches in the pools.. last time i was there massive ones kept stalking me across the pools and then sticking to the underside of the pan to get my fingers.

they will have to get through the gauntlet gloves first and make it through the pump as well i normally pan my cons it a tub to take home and use a blue bowl for final cleanup.i will be heading out friday as the weather is better

Heading out to Dolly's tomorrow for another crack with the 5000......this will be about trip number 10 with nothing found to date at this location !! Maybe tomorrow !!!!!!!

I have been a few times in the last couple of weeks myself no luck either. Have you tried Mt Doran Gold field ,its close to dollys creek . Full of gullies old mines etc . I have a map showing minesites, old dumps, areas to look , if you PM me your email address I will send you a PDF copy

mvh12345

Three fifths of f**k all !! Nice walk though....about five hours.... East side of creek on slopes right up where the creek branches off on several directions.....

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xft1/v/t1.0-9/11149324_10152951344474011_8981852962079021146_n.jpg?oh=cf84d6cb892d5023ee9454594d78d9b6&oe=55E3E853&__gda__=1436680609_5dd2035148323aaed08011275435cc8c

ITS STILL OUT THERE iv not had a swing at dollys for a long time now i only spent 20 or 30 mins swinging and got 2 small nugget

the terrain and difficulty dont really justify the rewards when theres so many other places to go.
I might head up there when water returns just so the family can have a slice and play

I had a few hours only available the other morning so just whipped out to Dollys Creek at the Bridge. As time was short I just detected within 200m of the camp area up on the hill to the South West. Now no gold but a pocket full of lead shot.... I would have thought that particular area would have been cleaned out of non-ferrous metals but there you go. I am slightly more confident that there will be gold still about there.

Dave

Dave

The water is not far away now Get below the hill wash and dig to bedrock and gold you will see

I will be checking from time to time

Some sage advice there !!! Me thinks a little bit of pick and shovel to expose more bedrock could lead to bits of gold like in the new video posted in the video section of this website. There is also an area well north of the camp site on the east side of the creek where vertical layers of slate are coming thru so I reckon that is worth a good scrounge too !!

do you know if there was much water around might head up later on this week also where is the hill wash area
thanks all

Hi folks, io just read thru all these Dollys creek threads... amazing maps and info...awesome ..ive been there recently and found .22 ,s and a shotty BB and some rust ( GPX 4500) Just got this detector and trying it out....love it thus far... and that hole in the bank just down from the main camp area is still there, and YEP ..people are still digging it ! a section has fallen down , but now its even deeper into the wall...im not going near it ! there is a good amount of water there now... I was very impressed with Dollys as far as potential goes...but very trashy as mentioned... there must have been some good miners there...as they haven't left us much ...lol

Probably heading out there tomorrow to main camp area on the creek. Will take pan etc in case there's some water...... Also will take detector in case no water... fun day out either way. Blue Jumbuck ute..... Say gday if your there.... Dave

well headed out for a few hours this morning.... a few bits of bullet and lead shot but no gold. Headed up the ridge directly opposite the campground and found some likely looking spots (or so I thought) and very shallow ground, bedrock exposed, shale exposed. Cleared off areas and moved a lot of rock to get to the ground and went over it very carefully. I feel I am doing the right things but after many, many trips there I feel I must not be reading the ground and geology properly. I have found small bits in other areas but not at Dolly's but I know its there. The maps on this thread show me where in fact but still no luck. I bet there are subtle things experienced detectorists look for when out in the bush and I think its these skills I need to learn.

Onwards!!

Easy access,shallow rocky/slate/shale exposed & sluiced to death ground is exactly what I try to avoid these days. Have no doubt the gold was there within detector reach at some stage or another in the past,but because of the things mentioned above,& a good thirty years or so,of having every detector under the sun hammering them,the easy gold has been all but depleted.That's one of the main reasons why,you're not finding any colour,hill folk.
The key to success over these type of areas encountered,is to detect close to the fringes of these surfaced workings,but not on/in/or over them.

Cheers Kon.

Thanks Kon,

That's interesting. Hadn't thought of it that way. Perhaps I will focus next time on the where the shallow ground borders the deeper more forested, more loamy ground. What you say makes sense. Thanks.

Dave

I will head back out to Dolls Creek on Friday. Blue Jumbuck ute. Will detect over the creek on north side from camp ground but will focus away from the bare ground/sluiced areas and fiddle around in the more vegetated sloped areas towards the top of the rises. Say gday if anyone is there and you see me.....

So, for anyone whose following this thread....

Went back to Dollys Creek and got 4hrs detecting in...

The news is not good I am afraid. 19 pieces of lead, 2 pieces of iron, 0 pieces of gold!!

Stayed away from the cleared areas and found myself out on this little spur where the majority of my junk finds occurred. Now this could mean one of two things. Either it just happens to be a small piece of land that has not had a flogging by others or, to a more experienced eye, they would say "you'll not get gold down there"....
Who knows?? I prefer to think of the former and as such will head back to the spur next time out there and keep clearing junk.

I did some experimenting with General and Deep search mode (both in Fine Gold) and found that Deep will certainly go deeper by 20-30mm on a 10g lead sinker (who would have thought) with a tiny bit (negligible) of sensitivity loss on wee bits. It was interesting that Deep put the RX Gain up to 17 and still relatively quiet whereas if i put the Gain up to 17 in General it was noisy. So the lesson is if I am looking for gold that may be down a bit use Deep search mode (duh!)

Another thing was the tones. During my experiments if the target was large and deep it went high low but if small and shallow went Low high.....

Anyway, the day was not a total loss. I found an area that still has junk in it and I learnt some things about the 5000.

Dave

familiar story there...
Was there any water for a sluice?
Last time 2 years ago i was up there took one of the rough tracks through the MX area and found some very recent sluice diggins so i dug 12ft down from them... found many little flakes...we're talking pick up with a needle or tweezers mind you but that's about all i've ever found anywhere. Bought a bigger tent the other day and the 4yo step daughter is keen to come bush so hope to spend a weekend up that way some time soon If I ever find where im allowed to setup a bush camp haha

Hows it going Jerry?? Been a while since we spoke on this forum.

Sorry mate but there is no water apart from isolated puddles. That's down near the main camp area anyway. I cant speak for further up the creek. All looks very dry. If I felt like a pan I will take a few containers of water. Not terribly convenient but a day out is a day out.

Dave

Ah I'm doing ok... struggling as per.
Dollys is one of those that only ever seems to have isolated puddles to get leeched up in lol.
Can't really carry water in my lil (now big and raised) Zook but oh wells, worst case could do the naughty and sieve then take concentrate home haha.
Been going bush at wombat, have scoured everywhere in the forest but no gold in any of the little streams haha i swear there just isn't any left there.
A vid from my last outing... Haven't gone to Dollys as since raising my zook one wheel points a different direction to the other lol & need to weld a flex joint on the exhaust but stainless to mild steel doesn't work with a $100 arc welder lol I'd love to just head up to dollys with my sluice and no worries but plagued to no end

Hi Jerry and Hill folk

The gold was there all those years back and still is it's just a matter of being in the right location, Here is a small video of a friends first gold find and Allan with the old brown coiltek coil finding a crumb. after the fire you could see from one end of Dollys to the other.
https://youtu.be/qW3b6hMi5_8

Allan also found a nice 4 oz's slug at only a few inches down

Believe me the old timers didn't just find small gold there were big lump found and would like to show you these two nice slugs

4 oz's


just over 2 oz's for the big one


I know of a few locations I have yet to run the 7000 over so keep your eye's open you might see me about

Holy Crap !! Now that is lovely gold for sure.... Thanks for spurring us on. Certainly has motivated me!! As I said above I have found a spur with lots of lead so will clear that out... You never know!!!

Cheers

Dave