Lannacoorie Wrap Up By Mariner3800

Hi All,

Just found some time over the past couple of nights to put this final report together, hope you enjoy it and well done to all on the money raised.



Laanecoorie Gold Bash 2013

For those of you who don't know about this event, I will try and explain it in a few words.

This event was an Idea I had after about 12 months of belonging to the Gold Detecting & Prospecting Forum and corresponding with so many wonderful people on-line, I thought it would be great to catch up over a weekend & share some ideas, stories and a camp fire. I ran the Idea by a few forum members who all responded with "it would be great to put faces to names" so it was organised. Our humble little catch up has grown from 40 folks, 3 years ago, to over 150 attendees this year. It is open to anyone with Gold Fever
Our gathering is an informal platform to share knowledge, make friends & raise some money for a nominated charity and the forum is a great way to communicate and organise such an event.


This year, the Gold Bash was moved from May to October to capture the better weather Victoria can offer, as well as take advantage of day light savings at this time of year.
Attendance this year was again up on last year, with well over 150 attendees over the 3 days.

We kicked this years event off with a Fish BBQ on Friday night, with all the fish being donated by one of our Northern forum Members, " Blisters" from Cains. After a wonderful meal cooked to perfection by " GoldEN" & "Fly Specs" with Wonderful Salads being supplied by Primo Salad Fresh Foods. ( Gotta look after the sponsors ).

A short talk was given by PMAV & NAPFA representatives informing us of what they are working on and how they need our involvement. Over the weekend both these organisations had over 30 new members sign up and pledge their support.
A run down of the program for the weekend was presented and then it was free time for all to meet and greet and share in a few drinks and laughs.

Saturday morning saw the start of a great day with everyone assembling at 8:15 for another program up date. From here people joined their organised tours, headed out into the bush with fellow detectorists, others stayed around the park to enjoy the activities offered. These activities include FREE training on the CTX 3030 provided by Bendigo Gold, others  participated in some panning demonstrations, or moved around a number of stalls and static displays provided by, Bendigo Gold, Aussie Detecting & Prospecting, Detech Coils Australia, Gold Prospecting Australia, Parks Victoria, Doug Stone, Environmental Creations, Gold & Relics and a couple of locals selling prospecting gear.
Around lunch time the tour groups returned to the Park with great stories and praise for the operators who had donated their time as part of their contribution to the charity.

After lunch the second tour groups headed out and people kept arriving, participating in the static displays and then heading out again. “ Wombat” kicked off the afternoon with his talk on how to do your prospecting research, where to find information and how to use it.
Later in the afternoon "DeanO" from Environmental Creations gave a very hands on demonstration on how to reproduce your prized nugget as well as a talk on famous nuggets he has reproduced over the years.

As the day drew to a close, people started returning to the park with stories of small finds and some not so small finds, with the biggest nugget I personally saw being well over 20 grams, and I did hear of one very large nugget as well, but still have not been able to confirm it??

At 6:30 we kicked off the evening events with a wonderful roast dinner being catered for by the Park staff, and can I just say that roast beef & pork just melted in your mouth. Well done to the cooks, and all involved as you have set the bar even higher for next year.

After dinner we had further talks from PMAV & NAPFA representatives and then a very interesting talk by the one and only Doug Stone on geology. This was followed by an Open Mic Discussion on prospecting by none other than John Gladdis, Tony Mills & Doug Stone. This was a wonderful hour of stories, facts and laughter had by all.
After the light hearted discussion the Peter Mac Charity raffle was drawn, with many thousands of dollars of prizes up for grabs.
After the raffle, the night was filled with stories of gold, the good old days, and the planning of tomorrows adventures.

Sunday morning came and with some very tired and heavy heads making their way to the assembly area, the days activities were again kicked off. More tours headed out to the gold fields, more groups of new and old friends making their way out the gates to find their riches or just enjoy each others company around the camp and Bendigo Gold again running the 3030 training.

I also managed to slip out for an hour with my son, ping a small piece of gold and be back before the 2pm closing and charity auction.

This year we had a professional auctioneer give up his time to attend and run our Peter Mac Charity Auction and can I say, Allan Gay was the life of the party. Allan knew how to get people to open up the wallets and dig deep for charity all while having a laugh (Thanks Allan)

All up for the weekend we raised just over $11,000.00 for the Peter McCullan Cancer Institute, an effort all who attended can be proud of. It was quite an emotional time for myself due to the fact that I had heard over the weekend that Jim Stuart was not responding to the treatment and that his time on this earth was near end.

Of course weekends like this just don’t happen with out some serious behind the scenes work and I would like to thank Bill “ Wombat “ for his tireless work on sponsorship and organisation, my wife & sons for their un conditional support and help over the weekend and all those wonderful sponsors and helpers who made this such a successful event


Laanecoories Lake Side Park                                   Coiltek Manufacturing
Nugget Finder Coils                                                   Gold Prospecting Australia
Kambah Car Care                                                      Coiltek Maryborough
Gold Gem & Treasure Magazine                                    Gold Search Australia
Minelab Australia                                                       Nugget from down under
Gold & Relics                                                            Aussie Detecting & Prospecting
Bendigo Gold                                                            Parks Victoria
Environmental Creations                                             John Tully
Doug Stone                                                              John Gladdis
Tony Mills                                                                Donolly Royal Hotel
Primo Salads                                                            The Out Back Prospector
CC Picks                                                                  Detech Australia
Day & Sons Ballarat                                                  The Gold Exchange Ballarat
Discount Fishing Gear Maryborough                              CoCo Red Hair
Coles Maryborough                                                   Eurabbie Estate
Mount Avoca Winery                                                Tipperary Hill Winary
Mack Boots Maryborough                                           Lake George Hotel Bungendore
Gidleigh Pastoral Bungendore
The Poster Shop Ballarat
Woolworths Maryborough


Without all the sponsors and their donations it would not be possible to put on this free event.

As we look forward to an even bigger event next year, we are always on the look out for new sponsors and helpers so if you can help out in any way please get on to our forum and let us know.




Laanecoorie 2013 Gold Bash Financial Report To Members

As there was over $11,000.00 raised this year the organisers thought a final financial report should be produced for forum members .


This is no attempt at a formal P&L statement, just a quick overview of the money raised.



Income

Raffle, Fish BBQ & Drinks $3,890.00

Charity Auction $5,047.00

Donations $305.00

Gold Prospecting Australia $1,050.00

Gold & Relics Clunes $808.40


Total Money Raised $11,100.40


This is one outstanding effort, we all should be very proud

Thanks Peter for that report.

It was great event headed by you and Wombat.  
I have been participating in all Laanecorrie bashes so far and would like to continue to do so.I enjoy helping and try to get involved in charity work for people little bit less privileged then us. It gives me enormous personal satisfaction to be able to contribute in any way, shape or form.

I also would thank all our sponsors and everyone who made this event possible.

This year was little bit strange without Jim around and i think everyone who knew him had a good reason to be emotional.
I also applaud the Hosts -Laanecoorie Caravan Park staff with Robin for been such a professional team considering the circumstances.

Would also thank lot of people who let us enjoy our hobby and put up with our detecting stories (wives, girlfriends, kids etc).

Looking forward to next year event and make myself available for any help required.

GoldEN

And a big pat on the back to us for being the major sponsor of this event......

If forum members are not aware of this I am not surprised as it has been a well kept secret.

Gold & Relics raised over $1650.00 for the Laanecoorie Gold Bash not just $808.40 as suggested. The Western Australian Tagalong Tour that we donated raised $850.00 at auction and the money donated from the tours raised $808.40. A total of $1658.40. Yahoo!

And a big pat on the back to Blisters for his major donation of the fish for the BBQ worth $1400.00.

We would like to thank Bill and Peter for their organisation of the event this year. A huge task to be taken on by any committee let alone only 2 blokes. There were also many other helpers who chipped in and did their bit on the weekend who deserve a huge thank you.

I think fair sponsorship recognition is something that can be vastly improved on for next year. All sponsors need to be recognised in proportion to their donation - not just your mates.

  Here, here!!!! It was a BRILLIANT weekend, thanks to all those who volunteered their time and efforts, and to all those who supported the entire effort!!!   

As the recipient of the auction for the Tagalong Tour Darren of Gold and Relics kindly donated, I echo his above post and also wondered why Gold & Relics total was stated as $808.40 when I knew I had paid my $850 pronto to Peter/Mariner..glad its all sorted out...anyways I can't wait to Tagalong with Darren in May next year to W.A......my wife actually bid without telling me...some wives will do anything to obtain a fortnight's peace and quiet!..Lol....no doubt it will be Darren who will be sick of me by then!......

What a worthwhile/fun time we all had together, the comraderie and the gold knowledge so freely given by all was outstanding...there would not be many forums of like minded folk of anything, that could put together a Bash like that and for free and be supported by so many......I also would like to give a resounding cheer to Peter/Mariner, Wombat and their merry band of helpers for a another fantastic BASH!...well done...Hoo Roo

Well done to all the organizers and contributors.
Great event nice to chat with so many people with the same interests.

Not to mention the money raised for a good cause.

Will be there next year.

Regards Stinky.

Hi Darren,

I just thought I would clarify a few of your remarks so that you and all our forum members are clear about the Laanecoorie Bash and its format.

I have posted this on the forum as it is in response to what you have already posted.

1. It has never been our intention to keep things “ secret “, we have never had “ Major Sponsors “ as we have always felt that sponsors give what they can, be it a $30 gift voucher for a hair cut, a meal at the pub, a detector or a tour.
It is up to us then to get the best value for our charity out of this donation be it through the raffle or the auction.

Our event will not single out sponsors based on a dollar value, we do have 4 foundation sponsors of the bash that have been on board since the start. Their donations have always been unconditional and some have even told us that they don’t want recognition.

We try and run our weekend very differently to other organized prospecting events. A couple of major differences are that it is a free event, there are no competitive competitions so we only have winners at our event. Everyone wins because of the access they have to fine training services like you offer and information that they have access to over the weekend and the mate ship that can come from events like this.

2 If we go down the path of putting dollar figures on sponsorship/donations, then there are other organizations that spent many thousands of dollars providing services over the weekend that directly did not raise one cent, however people participated in what they were offering and providing so without them and the services we may not have had the attendance like we had at our event. So indirectly they have been very generous in their sponsorship as well, I would say.

We did over several occasions on the weekend recognize all sponsors and businesses for their support and not just for a dollar value.

We had over 40 locations around the Greater Central Victorian Gold Fields where we were promoting this event, we had TV coverage of the event where your company ( no other ) had recognition, and several media outlets have run and will run a list of ALL sponsors of the weekend. I think this, plus the cliental you would have gained over the weekend is well worth it?

3 I hope you discussed with Blisters that you were going to publish the figure of his donation as this type of action may offend some people, as some people do it out of the goodness of their heart and to support the charity and not just for the glory and recognition of a dollar value.

4 I do take clarification to your comment of


I think fair sponsorship recognition is something that can be vastly improved on for next year. All sponsors need to be recognised in proportion to their donation - not just your mates.

I think I have answered most of this above, however I would like to know what you mean by “not just your mates “



I hope this clears up a few things and we can now move onto organizing a bigger and better event next year.

Hi Peter, I applaud you and Wombat for the way the 2013 bash was run. I agree with you as to how the event was run and how anyone who sponsored or donated items towards the bash should be recognized equally. None of this "my donation was bigger than yours". I made a donation which was between Peter and myself and no one else's business. I struggle financually and health wise but had great pleasure in donating what i could afford towards the bash. I dont think too many changes need to be made to next years event as its all about everyone having a good time and raising a few bucks for a good cause. Thank you to everyone who helped run the bash and to anyone who came and partisipated over the weekend and made it the success that it was. Cheers Grumpy.

Hear,hear. I also agree that the format should not change. I attended this years bash and thoroughly enjoyed catching up with great people that i have met through this forum and put some new faces to names . I would not like to see competition between sponsors creep in. With that comes more stress, worrying about upsetting sponsors if you did not mention them enough. I believe it would take away from the event if it became commercialized. Fantastic the way it is.
Once again thanks to Wombat, Peter and his family and all involved, looking forward to next years event.
Cheers John.

Maybe make the p&l statement available via private messaging and just post the total raised. Advise all sponsors before posting anything on the forum. Those that wish to know can then pm for it.

Total was announced on the last night of the meeting to much applause
Sponsors were named ad nauseum
At least three times anyway
Nuff sed
Great work guys
If it ain't broke don,t fix it

This thread is now starting to go pear shaped, unfortunately to the detriment of the Bash's aims and fantastic achievements IMO....
I can see exactly why Darren made his comments and support them, which should stand out like dogs dates to anyone who has been in competitive business....nough said...why not now close this thread for posterity..and onward and upward to Bash 2014?. ..Hoo Roo