Are the goldfields of Victoria worth it?

Ok fellas we are hearing about the West, but there are many visitors to Victoria and we never hear how they get on. Would you still recommend the goldfields in Victoria?

Putting my other hat on, why do we belong to a club and go into the bush on a regular basis. What we always say, the comoraderie of other people, the bush itself, the birdlife, the history. These are enough to make you go into the bush.

The gold, well we have heard over the past few years how much harder it is today to find the big ones, which is one reason why the 4500 was so successful on small nuggets. Yet we are still seeing the odd large one come out. Every time I go out with the club, someone always find a nugget several grams in size whilst the majority of nuggets are around the gram size or smaller. Finding even one nugget is the challenge and the bonus.

There are over 100 guys detecting in the goldfields each weekend for there are a lot of goldfields stretched over the State and they are within one to two hours drive from home. So that answers my question from one Victorian point of view.

NAH, Give the VIC goldfields the flick they are owned or leased by people who won't let anybody on who they don't know and they want all the remaining gold for themselves. Some of these owners have very large tracts of gold bearing bushland that they never even go into but still won't let anybody in. and as for the itty bitty bit of remaining crown land! excuse me while I roll around the floor laughing.

There are a few remaining old gold towns in these areas that will soon be Ghost towns if the Greens have their way because access to this land may soon be prohibited for gold fossicking and these towns rely on gold prospecting to survive. All of the shops in these areas will soon be selling garden nomes and handcraft.

This is not necessarily the beliefs of the writer.

There! now that should fire up a hornets nest.

What types of Hand craft will they be selling?

Nomes - the ones that dont come to grief by the lawn mower, the kids down the road keep knocking off!

Gold - just have to find it dig it up and take it home - easy!

Morning Jeff,
No doubt there are detecting clubs in WA, however I do not know of any.
Maybe we are a different breed here in WA as are many of the visitors, the majority we come across are travelling alone. ie: Couples tucked away in the bush enjoying the detecting and outback. One couple from SA spend up to 4 months a year in solitude venturing into town once a fortnight to stock up on water and supplies.
The Leonora caravan park is usually packed during the detecting season because these visitors need some of the comforts of home and people around them, they leave their caravans in the park and commute daily out detecting.
Personally they miss the best part of the day, piccinny dawn as the bush wakes up and a quiet beer watching the sunset and talking about the day..
Roll on April '10

Cheers
Peter

Hi Jeff
Are the Victorian gold field,s worth it.
I guess it depends on why we are out there enjoying this hobby.
If it's trying to make a buck, I guess most of the Victorian fields will not pay very well in comparison to the WA fields but I must say I enjoy all my trips over the boarder.
I am time poor in comparison to most out there, but get away at least for 3 weeks total a year to the vic fields and find gold on most days.
I don't think I have covered my costs once but to me the fun and magic of pulling gold from the ground is worth much more than the spot gold price of the day .
I expect many others understand what I mean by saying that and the focus of trying to make a dollar are all part of the boring day to day worries that I leave well behind when I get away into the goldfields to do a bit of prospecting.
Mark

Theres a nice photo on the noticeboard outside Coiltek Maryborough.An 80 year old woman went out about 2 ks from where your crew parked at Wareek Jeff.She found around 7 ounces.I heard that a month latter a regular of the Avoca van park found another 10 ounces in that region as well.Thats what is so great about our hobby.Every time we go out there is always that possibility we will by luck or good management take that step in the right direction,That will change a great day into a brilliant day.
Cheers Dig

To those of us that live here, The Golden Triangle is priceless.
I guess we find more gold here than "visitors" because we have spent
more time in the field and know out territory better than folks who can
only do day trips or spend a week a year here.
No doubt it's the same for you folks in FN QLD or WA.
If you spend 5 days a week at your job you're (usually) pretty good at it.
If you only spent 2 or 3 days a month there...well...maybe not as proficient.
The folks who find the bulk of the gold have done a lot of research and spent
many hours in prospecting. It's probably taken them several years to become
"overnight successes"

Robert

Is it worth it ?
Just being able to wander around in the bush with a chance of picking up even a tiny bit is better than living in SE Qld.
So I'm bringing a detector with me on holls to Vic end of next week.
Hopefully meet up with some locals.
I'll give it a try and post the results.
Cheers !

Yeah the goldfields here in Vic are worth it... u just have to learn to read them first, u may not get that 80 or so ounces but u nearly always come home with a rattle or two in the pokie jar, and as Dig said there is always the chance of walking over a faint signal that turns out to be a winning lotto ticket. Hey Dig you wernt the driver for the fellow from the Avoca caravan park were u???????

I lived in Korrong Vale between 1961 and 63 and I used to go up into the gold fields around Wedderburn using an old WW2 mine detector trying to find the yellow metal. There was nobobody looking for gold with metal detectors then, just me and I had no problems getting onto properties to try my luck. Everybody was friendly and easy going. Farmers used to plough up nuggets in their paddocks in those days. I am a Bushie from waayy back and have spent a great may days, years in fact, in the bush looking for gold , watching the sunrise and sunsets and soaking up the peace and solitude down in mist filled gullies and out on open sunbaked plains. Anyway, Then we moved away and a few years later the electronic goldrush began. A few years after that I managed to get back that way for a visite and some reminiscing. I camped in my wagon up near Beggery Hill; While out detecting with my Compass Relic Magnum I was shot at, real close and I have not been back since. I headed back into the bush around Licola and Mnt Erica in Eastern Victoria for my fossicking and did quite well thank you very much, AND I was never shot at.

Yeah gold does funny things to people and they become nasty, possesive and very greedy.

Hi Adrian ss
Wonder if that was the same guy at Beggery Hill who fired shots to scare me off too.
I got a good look at him and he was driving an old bashed up ute , if he tries to do the same to me again he might end up looking a bit more like his ute.
Whilst this stupid behavior may be an effective method to scare prospectors away from general areas they should also realize that some of us are much better hunters and shots than prospectors and they well may bight off much more than they can chew.
As you can tell I'm still a bit pi-sed by this wan-ker.
Mark

HI Mark,
Yes most of us have been places, seen things and done stuff that people who do not know us well could not imagine.
I am a pretty good shot thanks to my military service but I do not have the nature of a person who can go around taking random pot shots at people. Whoever this person is should be behind bars or in a padded cell.

For me the bush is home, there is no better place to be whether it be in the rain forests or in the desert or out on the Gibber Plains.
Some of the country in SA and central WA and even QLD is nothing short of magnificent and I am sure that to the average city slicker who has never been to these places they would be unimaginable, like another planet landscape.

As for the greens, well what can I say? They have good intent with their tree fettishes but unfortunatly some people are born stupid and when such people get into a position of power in the community through money, bluff and pomposity they can make life miserable for everybody.

We are all born free on this planet and the land and the ocean is OUR natural habitat along with all other animals and critters. We should be free to move around the bush without the fear of breaking some Shiny as..d office workers nut case law if we move a rock or pick a plant or fish in the ocean or a stream and fossick for minerals.

"We are all born free on this planet and the land and the ocean is OUR
natural habitat along with all other animals and critters. We should be
free to move around the bush without the fear of breaking some Shiny
as..d office workers nut case law if we move a rock or pick a plant or
fish in the ocean or a stream and fossick for minerals"

Hallelujah Brother
Robert

Went to Beaufort to check out a camping spot and only had an hour to detect, so going up a gully I found a 4.23 grammer. Maybe the Vic goldfields are worth it. Certainly puts a grin on your face. Most nuggets are round but this one had been flattened - probably between two rocks under pressure. It was on the side of a gully on its side so sounded like a nail. It takes a while to find them but they are still there.


Jeff

went to the bush to escape the heat and have a few cans by a swimin hole and took the pans and sluice .
after a 20 ltr bucket was washed and only 3 tiny specs were found we did not hold out too much hope on the next bucket , but in the second last pan from it popped out a nice 23.3 gram nugget . the small area we worked was virgin ground with smooth stones from 3mm up to football size .
later we found out someone had pulled two nuggets around 5 grams each out of the same spot . we processed more material but only got specs .
think i will be takin the detector with me next time .