Gold and Ghosts

Having never seen them for real, are the Gold and Ghost series of books worth what they cost to get a set ?
Are they much help....what is the quality of the info like, and are the maps readable or just token maps ?

Good books Harb, but nothing there for NSW!

Gday Harb


For any detectorist it is well worth having a copy of the Gold & Ghosts book for the particular state you are working in, and reason is quite simple, it will put you in the gold bearing areas with the minimum of research, buy corresponding topo or geo maps for those areas and you have enough research material to get you on to the gold.

These books will give you real locations where gold has been found, mud maps showing enough detail for you to correlate with your maps, and also in most cases there is information about the history of the area too, once you have been to some of these areas and you start to recognise features and the signs associated with previous workings, this will all add to your education about what to look for in that particular spot and the surrounding areas, its all a learning process.

As far as value for money goes you will have to be the judge of that yourself, I know the prices of these books have soared over the years, but also you have to consider that most of these books cost less that a 1/2 oz of gold, and about the price of a good coil, and you have to relise that no matter how good the detecting gear is you have you still have to be on gold bearing ground.

I can absolutely tell you that information is the key to success, without the information to get you on to the right ground you can waste a lot of time, fuel, and energy, do your sums as to what it would cost you to do a trip to one of the WA goldfields from the East, and you will soon see the benefits of owning both a reference and map book that will increase your odds of actually getting some gold, not to mention the fact that with the book and corresponding maps you can pre plan your trip, apply for permits in advance etc, and go strait to the areas of most interest.

There is some outdated information in these books no doubt, changes to tracks and access points, but at least it gives you somewhere to start and some guidance, over the years these books have been responsible for many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold being found, and I know myself that if I ever decided to do a prospecting trip to the East I would have purchasing some of these books for areas I wanted to go to, as no 1 on my list, because I know full well that I can go straight to gold bearing areas and fast track my knowledge base of what I need to be looking for on the ground, as everywhere you go there are differences in features and the types of gold bearing ground, having the right information will make you a lot more confident in unfamiliar territory.

cheers

stayyerAU

G,day people , getting hold of these books is not easy or cheap . The local university library has a copy here in Rockinham {WA}. Had to put my name on a waiting list for 2 months....Have you tried your local library ?....Me , well I just memorised every page when I borrowed it . What you do with it when you borrow it is your business , cheers....Paul.....

Gday Paul


Thats a real surprise to hear that you managed to loan a copy as I heard that most of them have been stolen already, some of the ones you see on ebay are ex library copies, and the sellers usually tell you so, but because these books often change hands you would never know who actually stole it in the first place.

cheers


stayyerAU

G'day Stayyer , when I said they have a copy , that was 5 years ago { seems like yesterday }...I did inform the woman at the library of the books rarity and value and she said they would flag it as VALUABLE .....I wonder if it is still there ? Library book security is better these days with security tags etc so lets hope it's still there for others to look at .....Further on this subject , does anyone know the history of this book ..? Why would someone spend much time and effort to create a book like this , only to have it stopped being published ? I heard the first version of this book { WA } was republished with LESS info than the original . I assume money has something to do with it , cheers Paul....

Gday Paul


I have heard several versions of why David D decided to stop selling the books, and I asked him one time on another forum why he stopped them but he did not answer, so I only know what I have heard.

One version was that he had a dispute with a chemical company, makers of roundup or something like that and he stopped the sales of these books as a protest, how true this is and how him stopping selling the books would effect the company I dont know???

The other vesion was that there was some issue with a female partner that was also involved in the production and sales of the books, and after a break up he stopped sales of the books and destroyed all the remaining stock.

Thats why I asked him the question in the first place because I had heard these strange stories, and was curious to know if he ever planned to put them back on the market again.

Over the years I have seen pirated books that came from Europe, exact copies except the cover colour on the blue WA one was a bit different, havent seen them since, and also pirated cd's for sale on ebay, that was some time back and I suppose the seller got busted for copyright breach or something.

cheers

stayyerAU


cheers

stayyerAU

just looked on ebay an vol 1 west aust $650 buy now I saw a full set back a mouth or so $3000 not cheap but good books I have always been told

harb hi
yes mate , the quality of the info in them is first rate.the maps are just hand drawn mud maps , but with the descriptions and the maps , you can get to the diggings that are described in the books.
are they worth what they are selling for? i can`t answer that , but i have no intention of selling the one i bought in about 1993 , for $35.00.
i wish now that i had bought 10 copies instead of one. the funny thing is , when i bought the book , from a prospectig shop in granville that isn`t there any more,it was a lot of money to pay for a book.


stayyer
i met a guy in tarnagulla about 4 or 5 years ago that said he knew david d, and that your first version was the reason. ( i never understood it either)

hi Harb


Yes, there are lots of stories as to why I stopped selling Gold and Ghosts and here’s the real one.



They are of benefit to the detecting community, yet when I asked the same people for help, I got none. The books cost me money to keep on the market. In other words they cost me more than I was getting; so, no help, and no books. My time is now my own and I retired on the money I was using to put the NSW edition out.

Cheers Patches1

Hi mate,

I actually just brought a full set.........

Thats really sad to hear that....... there has been a lot of work go into the books...... a lot of heart as well.
I guess a lot of folk are wishing the NSW edition got printed, me one of them.

Its a shame you didnt get the help you needed to continue along with them.
It always seems to be the same story, you dont realise what you have until its gone.........
I do wish that you got the money I had to pay to get the set, rather than someone just making a buck because they are so hard to get.........
If you ever start again, let me know........I'll do my bit.

Patches, I know there are local companies (i know one) who would happilly produce quality Electronic book versions of your books and undertake all marketing and would discuss a good financial arrangement with you to assist in your retirement income.

Is this an option?

Tributer

I know what your saying Tributer, as I would love to have the NSW version in any form too (although I would pay 10 times more for that nice heavy book feel), but I think E books to a writer would be like Steven Spielberg showing his stuff on YouTube.

Hi, I have just listed Vol's 1and 2 in our local paper[ The Quokka] at $600.00 for the two, both are soft back copies that I was
given when I bought my first detector, a Garrett.If sold I 'll put the money towards a couple of new
coils. Cheers Greg.

Hi
you can get Gold & Ghosts, 100k geology & historical mine and lease maps, oziexplorer format,abandoned minsesite name search daterbase
which is compatible with Ozi explorer

http://www.exploroz.com/Shop/Maps/Greg_Harewood/Gold___Ghosts_WA_100k_Digital_Map_DVD.aspx

i have found this very usefull in ploting places that are in the books

Anybody have recommendations for books on geology and prospecting in the Murchison region of WA

ebooks and websites as well would be appreciated

Time to get abit more technical

Cheers U308

Gold & Ghosts are indeed interesting and informative, and copies are available for reference if you know where to look. Most librarians seem to know them well and will laugh at you when you mention them because every man and his dog has come in looking for their long stolen copies.

It's a crying shame to see such a well researched and written book out of print and so hard to find. I'm not sure of your motives behind keeping them off the shelves patches (although there's no shortage of stories why), but I hope you change your mind one day so that we may all have a copy of your book without being gouged for thrashed old copies - or for us poorer prospectors, having to make do with furtive power read sneak peaks in libraries while paranoid staff watch over your shoulder to make sure you don't run away with their book .

Considering people are willing to pay such high prices for them it seems certain there is a market for a run of reprints. Please consider, both for the prospectors of today and tomorrow. Your books have become a wonderful artifact in themselves, it seems a waste for them to be so needlessly inaccessible when they are in such ready demand.

U308, do you have this book? I am sure you will find it of practical use, and if not, it will be of interest at least.

Guildedprospects... thanks for the reply, going to get it thru the local libary i will see how it goes should be a good read

Cheers U308

Hi all, I live in Brisbane, northern suburbs . I was at one of the libraries a few months back & they still had the Volume 4, hard cover, very heavy.It covers northern Qld. It's been there for years, but now they have realized it's unique value, so whoever needs to see it has to wait a few days before they can retrieve it from their below ground storage section ( this is true) the lady told me it was cooler down there so I guess to help & preserve it. I was lucky enough to be working at Port Hedland 1984-86 so I bought my first detector. Minelab Goldseeker 15000 for $950 & luckily I obtained Gold & Ghosts Wa Vol 1 through mail order for a huge 30 Bucks. It's still as new, will go back to WA one of these days to see if any of those areas are still accessable, cheers all

You will get a shock YibiDavid,
Many of the old sites are now huge open cuts.
I think you paid $50.00 for your WA 1&2 back then.

Cheers
Nightjar

Hi Nightjar, Wouldn't be surprised about the open pits, what a shame. I distinctly remember paying $30 for it. I have no reason to lie. I don't think I would have paid $50, big bucks back then.( 1984) I s'pose the price of my detector was wrong as well, so if you would like to inform me what I might of paid for it, I'd hate to be accused of b------ting! C h e e r s.

My apologies YibeDavid,
I didn't word my last post very well, you got a very good deal getting your G&G for $30.00 in the 80's, bought mine from Angus & Robertson for $50.00 ea looks like I got ripped off.
It is still worthwhile using the G&G's for initial searches, however as mentioned quite often when you Google Earth the area there is a gaping hole on the spot.
Cheers
Peter

Hi patches 1. I for one would be willing to pay several hundred for whatever you did compile on NSW when you were doing it. This would be directly to you no middle men. I'm sure many of our prospecting community would do the same.

Dicko..

You need a wizard like Merlin for that.

Hi chopppacalamari,
Do a search on Finders, he posted pages of his nsw stuff on there.

Patches - I don't know what format you have your books in, but things have changed in the last 10 or 15 years. I just published a book on prospecting myself, and if you do it right its possible to publish a book these days very cheaply. It is possible to self publish and put out a book at a profitable price. A well known yank prospector who put out a book years ago told me he lost a buck a book (and he was proud he came so close to profitability). That's no longer necessary. The publishing business has changed.

My question to the rest of you is what do you think of Doug Stone's new book? - is has a lot of info on where to find gold all across Australia.

Reno Chris wrote:Patches - I don't know what format you have your books in, but things have changed in the last 10 or 15 years. I just published a book on prospecting myself, and if you do it right its possible to publish a book these days very cheaply. It is possible to self publish and put out a book at a profitable price. A well known yank prospector who put out a book years ago told me he lost a buck a book (and he was proud he came so close to profitability). That's no longer necessary. The publishing business has changed.

My question to the rest of you is what do you think of Doug Stone's new book? - is has a lot of info on where to find gold all across Australia.

he covers all the states well, all except QLD

Reno Chris wrote:
My question to the rest of you is what do you think of Doug Stone's new book? - is has a lot of info on where to find gold all across Australia.

G'day Chris, I have not seen previous versions of Doug Stone's book, I have purchased the new book and I feel it is very well presented and worth every cent (AU$125)

Shame there is not a Gold & Ghosts for Vic.....or is there?? any searches I have done has not returned a result. As stated before by others and I will say it again these books are fetching some good prices, but in the scope of the return the information can gain it is a fractional outlay!!

Cheers

Apologies accepted Peter, No hard feelings. I must admitt I have enjoyed your input for this forum since its inception, so thanks for that. Maybe see you round when I come over to WA one day, cheers David

hi all, ive read the Wa edition and have found the majority of places mentioned are now held by mining companies so you'll need to apply for a section 20A in those areas. Also to u308, a good book to look for covering the Murchison is called 'Meekatharra the gold beyond the rivers'