A SAD NOTE FROM A MATE JUST BACK FROM WA

I just received this from a mate I trained in prospecting many years ago who drove from Darwin to WA for a prospecting trip. He was 130km north of Meekatharra.

All I can say is that this would have to be one of the lowest scumbag acts I have heard of in a long time :

" my trip was a disaster from the get go, everything went wrong. What topped it off was coming back to camp to have 4 slashed Tyres and most of my gear stolen including my new Honda generator spare detector all my chargers etc,The cops are not holding there breath on finding anything, I was in the Meekatharra area.
I’d been planning this trip for 18 months, spend all my savings on equipment and fuel. All I come home with was 14grams and a very unhappy wife, I found more gold in weight with you when you showed me how to use a detector in 3 days then in 3 months in WA. "

Luckily my mate had a satphone in his backpack, or this could have been life threatening, as he was well out of mobile range ! As it was, it cost him a small fortune to get towed in from out there. He stated that there were two sets of tyre tracks, and 4 lots of footprints, so 2 vehicles and 4 blokes.

Rick

What the **** is wrong with people these days Rick? This is very disappointing to hear & sad news indeed, for it could have been so much worse. Why place another persons life in danger? Even if one is seen as breaking the law, then it should be brought to the attention of the corresponding authorities, not take the law into one owns hands, dishing out vigilante. Whether one is in the right or wrong, in the heat of the moment, dishing out a couple of minutes of vengeful anger, could lead one into a prison cell for a very long time. Scum bags, if you're reading this, ask yourselves, is it all worth it?
You may laugh now, but what goes round, eventually comes round. No one escapes justice, in this lifetime or the next.

Kon.

That is a heartless act.
These people need to be brought to justice for their lowly act.
What on earth brings people to do something like this is beyond belief.

That's very bad, I wish for some bush justice for the scumbags that have done this to your mate.

cheers dave

Wow! How can another human being do something like that!

Some people just don’t think of what could have happened to your friends if they couldn’t have called for help.
Slashing all their tyres. Low scum act, it could have ended up a murder scene.
lucky your friends had a satphone.
I hope the police get them.

sociopaths,there's a lot out there,scums of the earth!

moredeep

not the done thing what a deadshist act, don't worrie I would be pissed to

Hmmm. maybe a wildlife camara pointing at your camp would help. Might get the rego of the purps if it were to happen to you or I.

An absolutely despicable act. Its one thing to steal, quite another to put a person's life in jeopardy because they are marooned. I think if I ever did a trip like that a CCTV setup would definitely be the go, at least it would increase the chances of catching the rascals.

Ian

SAD, JUST PLAIN SAD. Hope something like that happens to them.

Our camp was raided one night last year near Laverton. We only lost about $200 worth of gear but it makes you mad to think people were sneaking into your camp at night.
We knew who did it but couldn't do anything about it, they were from Mt Margret.

Nothing changes really, I was in Perth 85-86 and a trip out to the goldfields could always result in an assault, theft or damaged equipment. I saw cars 'Picked' radiators punctured and tyres slashed. It was always the local ferals, protecting "our patch", they had no claim to the area as it was open crown land then or cattle runs. I remember that random gunshots in the night and mysterious fires were a 'thing' back then used to drive people back to the city.

To the moderators here. You seem to have deleted everything I wrote on this matter. There's not much point in anyone posting educational stuff that gives another perspective on how these incidents happen if you're gonna delete them. None of my posts were abusive or finger pointing. They were merely telling prospectors that there are a lot of other parties involved in using the land mass of WA. But carry on in blissful ignorance and these evil things will continue to happen. Can't help those that don't wanna be helped.

Ichi

Gidday Les,
I got to read your reply before it was deleted, and agree with most of what you said.
However, I can assure you that my mate is, like me, meticulous in getting the required permissions, and knows exactly where he is at all times. He is also an APLA member.
This was not a case of an interstater being in the wrong place without permission.
This was a case of pure bastardry !
The description of the suspected offenders was given to me by another couple of people who had a suspicious vehicle roar into their camp only to find that one of them was home at camp, and they took off just as quickly ! The other vehicle was creeping around in the bush keeping an eye on the other of the two prospectors. This happened about a 100km north of Meeka, only 30kms from where my mates camp was. The description of the two vehicles matches that given to the police regarding similar occurrences in the area.
I am happy to post these details on this forum with mods permission, or I can PM them to you Les if you want ?

Cheers, Rick

Ichi-ban, one might know how these things happen & even by whom on the day, but I cannot allow any form of bias/racial discrimination of any sort, upon any race colour or creed, proceed or continue to proceed on this forum. Whether in the right or wrong, If people are educated enough to enter any locality governed by certain laws, they are also educated enough to do the right thing & abide by such. Now if the laws pertaining to such localities have been broken by certain individuals against another, then they should be brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities for further action. In Ricks mates case, where laws have clearly been broken, placing peoples lives in jeopardy, need to be dealt with appropriately & dealt with quickly, before someone ends up paying with their lives. No bystander/citizen or governing official, should be turning a blind eye on crime, for it paves the way to injustice, eventually leading to the loss of ones life.
This is a matter for the appropriate authorities Rick, it is not to be posted up for scrutinization on this forum.

Kon

Well all I can say is ichi-ban (Les) is the President of APLA and is very very helpful to any member of APLA that needs some kind of assistance, sure he tells it like it is and there is no beating about the bush when talking to him, all this softly softly political correctness is just bullsh!t

Les has helped us on a couple of occasions when an irresponsible person put stakes in a track and wrecked some tyers, following up on the complaint etc, and another time, when we had a 40e for some exploration ground and was threatened by the mining company if we came out on that ground, Les took up the case and followed it through.

WA is a big place, and if something is going wrong it can be a long walk back to town and there is not a lot of traffic on some of those outback tracks.

Anyway I say cut Les a bit of slack on here, it's no wonder NSW and VIC are getting locked down with National Parks and stuff etc, no one is game to say it like it really should be said for fear of being labeled a racist or some other type of political incorrectness.

cheers dave

Good onya Dave and I agree.
Too much jibber jabber it's not good all the time.
It needs to be said how it is

I can't recall saying Les wasn't Dave, but once again respect towards management has been thrown into disrepute. I wish I could say all the things I'v ever wanted to comment on over the years as I saw fit, but unfortunately am not at liberty to, or can/will be held accountable for. So for the sake of respect to all involved here, all I will say is that, this thread has run its course.
By the way Dave, if the King of France were logged on here & were to take his comments a little to far, I'd have him softly, softly, politically corrected & then he can take my head off via the guillotine.

Cheers all. Management.