what made you

It would be great if you could find that drum of opal  
I used to cut and polish opal and the stuff that I tossed away as rubbish would be worth a tidy sum today

My Missus is up at the Ridge ( As a tourist) at the moment and will be back tomorrow  ........Jeeezut's been peacfull these past few days  
Be interesting to see what she brings back.

An old bloke next door to my parents when i was young use to go gold panning and tell us about it.
Also i recall the hype in 1980 when gold spiked and nuggets where been found with detectors!
My uncle took us camping and panning at Misery Creek.
School visit to Sovereign Hill.


I also had ancestors mining gold at Turton's Creek in gippsland during the depression. ( they found next to nothing and nearly starved to death, ).
The following year they moved to Bendigo and did OK.

You could say gold is in the blood.

i was raised on a sheep property around quilpie, the old man kept telling us to get back on the horse and stop picking up all those bits of opal, and slowing us down.

went back about six years ago, and yes, ITS STILL ALL THERE just waiting for some person to dig under the surface and confirm the good non-sungrazed stuff. (native title claim, complicates the deal)

i remembered that introduction to precious stones, and in 1963 i found myself in clermont qld walking around all the old gold mines, but i was twenty years too early for metal detecting. bugger. and was still too young to learn about gold panning.

retired from farming in 2000, bought a new fishing rod and a gp extreme. best move i ever made. now a crotchy old bugger who has enjoyed the last thirteen years detecting and enjoying the bush. fantastic hobby ... kev

Adrian SS wrote:

Tributer wrote:Our family had a farm at Tumbarumba in southern NSW with gold and sapphires in the creeks all around us. All spare time since about 7 years old I spent panning and seiving ...and shooting. My parents got a garrett deepseeker then xt1700 then a 2000 and every model since. They detected WA and VIC every year till dad passed. Brother stills goes to WA for 5 months every year and VIc for a month or two. He is up to year 16 prospecting over WA. My first detector, after borrowing family detectors for a while was a 2200. . Our family has 5 nuggets over 30oz and a couple dozen over 10 oz to our name, with a couple patches over 100oz.

So with roots in prospecting, we got hooked on detecting when the 2000 was released.We have gold fever bad. My problem is a fulltime job slows me down.
Tributer

I think that adds up to around 3/4 of a MiLL! Geeze take a holiday mate an leave some for the rest of us   

I once caculated that I could live for 30 years on a million at my current standard of living and not have to put any of it in the bank  

Hi Adrian, 3/4 million I wish   Much of the gold was found and sold when gold was between $500-$600 an ounce...and that was only back in 2005. I guess we will be lamenting in a few years that we sold our gold for $1400 an ounce and will be wishing we had hung onto it.[/b]. 

Lunacy! ( Luckily)

l always wanted to spend my time in the middle of nowhere with the snakes, fies and heat , digging back breaking holes all day long , while advoiding being swallowed up into the earth by disused mine shafts only to come home with nothing but worthless metal trash , its sort of always been a dream of mine  

I met a chap who used to find nuggets silmply because he LIKED finding them; He wasn't seriously interested in the cash value  and kept them in a couple of shoe boxes on a shelf in his garage along with his tons of garnets, saphires, smokies n opals  

What made me . I have always been interested in finding gold but my passion for fishing was my main hobby. We went to sovereign hill on a family adventure early this year and panned some colour so the fever has hit since then. I have been off work for 6 months due to a work place injury and have had plenty of time to research. I can only pan for short periods so detecting was going to be my means of prospecting. So far I am happy going over old diggings scratching the surface picking up crumbs and not digging to deep. My youngest daughter is keen to help dig so will look for the deeper targets when I have help. Now I have spring and summer for fishing and winter autumn for detecting but my mind is stuck on gold at the moment.
Cheers Scrub

I first started Prospecting in the late 60's as an eight year old with my father and a fellow by the name of Don Mahoney (some of you may have heard of him), we originally went prospecting around Willow Grove area and then went to a spot in Daylesford an old Mullock heap. In the Willow grove region I found my first ouncer whilst panning, in a creek. We also were probably one of the first to dredge the Tanjil River, down hill of the Old Tanjil township site which is now underwater from looking at Google earth, we didn't know that the township was there at the time as it was already gone! the mullock heap was a diffent deal we used a sluice box and water from an old Puddling machine pit, that was being fed by water from a mine. I have google earthed the mullock heap and it is overgrown now but I think it is still there looking at it from the road! Now I stopped prospecting as my father died and I moved to Darwin, however I am now in my 50s the kids have grown up and the fever has struck again, although I am relegated to Panning due to lack of readies, and Crocodiles in creeks and rivers that have gold. Whilst there is lots of gold here it is in the most very fine!

I was 16 had no licence an old land-rover two mates and off to a place called Yawal NSW in 1981 no intention of looking for gold, met an old man and his two sons they were old to me as well .
I had no idea this moment in life would shape and change my life and make me the person I am today .
They showed us how to pan .The next weekend
my two mates and I were back in the creek panning . Gold in the first dish . The next 6 months we built a shed in the bush with water tank and an open fire.
Then we dredged found very little . 1985 I was lucky to meet Tony Mills he sold me an A2B ground hog done the hard yards not like some ..my children have experienced so much in a short time and I am trying to document all with video and good sound .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAic2goTvW4

fantastic job - mark garrett - really enjoyed your utube.

you found more gold than that little piece you showed in your hand, congratulations ... kev

My first experience with gold was going down two mine shafts at the back of our property when i was a kid. There was a small concrete weir across a creek before the small cataract and a stamper.  Later, my older brother started detecting in the 1980's and several years ago he showed me a man's sock filled to top with nuggets.  He lent me a detector to try but didn't show me how to use it!

Anyway, I promised myself upon retirement I would buy a detector which I did.  I have had some small success and have learnt a lot from this forum.  A few people here have also been generous with their time and info. Thanks.

I am currently in Nullagine WA and have been talking to some 'hard core' detectorists who have had leases and now drive for miles where there are no roads.  They talk in kilos for annual finds but this year has been a bit difficult due to rain making areas impassable and more vegetation.  It is an experience to watch them crushing rock and panning out the smaller gold.  On the small & flakey gold they then use a oxy blow torch (on light blow then increase heat over time), sprinkle Borax (as a flux) crystals onto the flakes and melt it all down into a lump.  

For some reason I find gold detecting & early Australian history fascinating.
 
Annie

thelion wrote:I first started Prospecting in the late 60's as an eight year old with my father and a fellow by the name of Don Mahoney (some of you may have heard of him), we originally went prospecting around Willow Grove area and then went to a spot in Daylesford an old Mullock heap. In the Willow grove region I found my first ouncer whilst panning, in a creek. We also were probably one of the first to dredge the Tanjil River, down hill of the Old Tanjil township site which is now underwater from looking at Google earth, we didn't know that the township was there at the time as it was already gone!  

Good spot that willow grove region.

Now let me tink  What makes anyone wake up one morning and say,I want to prospect for gold?   Fever,gold fever,shear madness driven to the point of no return.       but I wouldn't change it for the world  

        Cheers Kon.

Went to Hill End on a school excursion when I was 10 (I used to live in in NSW).

Since then I have been fascinated with gold. When I was about 12, me and dad hired a dectector and went back to hill end, did some detecting. Didn't find anything with the detector but found some flour gold while panning. Then into my teens I found out about girls, pubs, beer etc and forgot about gold for a long while.

Then what got me back into it about 3-4 years ago when I was around 32 was that Gold Rush Alaska show on Foxtel. Since then I have bought a GPX-4000, pans, picks, sluices, a highbanker, a Jeep 4wd, coils, and my biggest purchase was 36 acres in St Arnaud to play in. Gold fever well and truly struck and looks to be here to stay.

Over the years I probably haven't even found enough gold to buy myself lunch with, but I still love looking for it.