QLD Alluvial Goldfields Replenished?

Of course I empathise with all those who have suffered loss from the flooding, but at the same time my gears are always ticking over and I can't help but wonder if the floods in QLD will have replenished the depleted alluvial areas. Does anyone else agree that this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to have a crack at the QLD alluvial fields?

Gday Byteman


I would say that the flooding would have of course moved an awful lot of top soil from some areas therefore putting some gold into detector depth range, aluvial areas do not actually get replenished as such, as of course it does not grow back, but the shear volume of water flow and movement would have disturbed long standing embankments and taken the top off a lot of ground that has been reasonably worked, almost like making it new ground I suppose.

There would be a lot of detectorist up that way that are already thinking in the same way as you are and waiting for their favourite areas to dry out enough to detect on, but for the most part a lot of these poor sods have much more to worry about than detecting at the moment, I feel very sorry for these people and hope things turn around for the better for them soon.

The very worst thing is when these things happen in that there is little or nothing that we can directly do for them, and we have to rely on the powers that be and all the marvellous organisations that rally around to help these people out, its amazing how community spirit grows at times like this, I saw this in action while fighting the ash Wednesday fires in Victoria, the thing with the fires was that once they have passed through and everything cooled down, the threat is over as theres nothing left to burn, it enables people to get on with the re building of there communities, but with flooding it takes a much longer time for it to all dry up so that people can get on with things, and there is also the ever present threat of more rain and more flooding, so recovery will take a lot longer for some of these areas than others.

Anybody that is considering going to any of these hard hit areas to detect when things calm down a bit should possibly re think that idea, these people have enough on their plates without the influx of outsiders getting under foot, anyway it will take some time for facilities such as petrol stations, stores and caravan parks etc to get back up and running so I think these area are best avoided for the time being, its one thing to go there to help out as a volunteer but its a completely different thing to go there to try and profit from their misfortune, and I am sure that people who go there or that reason will be quickly identified by the locals and be asked to move on.

My 2c

cheers

stayyerAU

Anybody that is considering going to any of these hard hit areas to detect when things calm down a bit should possibly re think that idea, these people have enough on their plates without the influx of outsiders getting under foot, anyway it will take some time for facilities such as petrol stations, stores and caravan parks etc to get back up and running so I think these area are best avoided for the time being, its one thing to go there to help out as a volunteer but its a completely different thing to go there to try and profit from their misfortune, and I am sure that people who go there or that reason will be quickly identified by the locals and be asked to move on.

Bloody never a true word written.
The ones who scammper up to these places are nothing more than fleabags, and not only us detectorist it also covers fly by night tradespeople (most have no trade or are shonky at the best).
Only just looked at the papers here at the overnight drama in Qld, bad news and hope the toll doesnt go to high.
Regards
John

Like you say Stayyer I bet others are thinking the same thing. At this very moment we're suffering the worst flooding here I've ever seen and a quick look on the BOM radar shows that much more rain is on its way. It's shaping up to be a day of horror in SEQ!

Gday Byteman
Doesn't look good for you guys. I was just looking at a seven day long range forecast for WA at http://www.metvuw.com/forecast/forecast.php?type=rain&region=waussie&noofdays=7 and you can see the crap that's headed to the eastern seaboard this week. Seems it's only going to get worse.
Good luck.
Brett

Byteman...not expecting you to be able to read this but fingers crossed for you mate...Burpengary getting hit with flash floods as I type this.

Considering I'm on highish ground (for now at least anyway) I thought I'd grab a cam and head out to have a look. I've just come home from several hours of touring the area and I must say I've never seen anything like what I just saw. Piles of cars floating around in eddies at shopping centre car parks, once harmless little water courses transformed into raging white-water causeways. The larger river in the area being the Caboolture, is nearly a kilometre wide at the Bruce highway and as raging with such force its scary to be near it. I hope the poor buggers at the caravan park perched on the banks of the river just next to the Bruce Highway bridge will be OK because as of 15 minutes ago the river was swallowing it up. There are hundreds of permanent sites there. Another thing which amazed me was how many people in sedans were attempting to cross raging flood waters that even 4WD owners were apprehensive to cross. I honestly lost count of how many cars I saw conk out in water up to their window sills whilst attempting ridiculous crossings. You've got to love having a diesel with a snorkel in times like these.

Hi Madtuna and thanks for your concerns. We're flooding here but no water has come into the house, and unless things get dramatically worse we'll probably escape unscathed. I've just completed an exhaustive self-taught course this morning on water crossings so I'll be all set for when I come down to get some of that Hill End Gold.

re freshwater what are feabags after 10.000 hours and 4 years of an apprenticeship and over 40 years experiance as a carpenter working not only on houses and muilty storey buildings in sydney and nz i am offended by what you have said example insurance companies have the final say on what is done to a house or building if there is damage these people who are affected by water fire rain damage only want to get back home and get things fixed up and back into life again example i now live in urunga ayear or so ago we had 600 mm over 1 night not over a week i live approx 200 m from aged person who had water entertherehouse i had a look for them and recommended that the bottom 1200mm of gyprock be taken off what insurance did was to cut 30mm holes in gyprock to allow moisture to escape 18 weeks later it was patched up and painted 1 week later i had a look and there was mould extruding from the walls who is at fault i also quoted on 7 jobs in and around here and 5 of the 7 jobs people wanted me to over price the jobs so they could get the insurance money !!!!! so is the insurance people wrong or the people themself i donot think that i was wrong - - -- mal ex kiwi

Hi Kiwi, I am a Tradie as well and the Insurance companies always try to do things as cheap as possible, not always. The Guys that come and access the damage are the one's that quote the work to be done. Basically, any water damage to Plasterboard will start to mould from behind the board first so by the time it comes through to the face of the board could be weeks. The board needs to be cut out and the walls need to be aired [dried out] because the timber needs to dry off as well, then the new board can come back on.
Hope this makes sense....
uncle bob

Byteman....Hope you are ok up there. Heard some bloke on talk back this morning (did not catch from which organisation) saying that they had completed many tests on 4WD vehicles in moving water and that they are not as safe as many people think. Reckons that .5 to .7 of a metre and they can start to float. Keep safe up there. MacRob

malcolm mclean wrote: re freshwater what are feabags after 10.000 hours and 4 years of an apprenticeship and over 40 years experiance as a carpenter working not only on houses and muilty storey buildings in sydney and nz i am offended by what you have said example insurance companies have the final say on what is done to a house or building if there is damage these people who are affected by water fire rain damage only want to get back home and get things fixed up and back into life again example i now live in urunga ayear or so ago we had 600 mm over 1 night not over a week i live approx 200 m from aged person who had water entertherehouse i had a look for them and recommended that the bottom 1200mm of gyprock be taken off what insurance did was to cut 30mm holes in gyprock to allow moisture to escape 18 weeks later it was patched up and painted 1 week later i had a look and there was mould extruding from the walls who is at fault i also quoted on 7 jobs in and around here and 5 of the 7 jobs people wanted me to over price the jobs so they could get the insurance money !!!!! so is the insurance people wrong or the people themself i donot think that i was wrong - - -- mal ex kiwi

Malcolm...I'm pretty sure he's refering to the Fly-by-nighters...take your money and run mob who always surface after a disaster. The next week they're cleaning out granny by painting her roof or bogus "have to have" electrical safety switches etc..

Gday All
These disasters attract all sorts of dirtbags but at the same time there's the Aussie spirit showing through.
Back to Bytemans original post, yes there will be opportunities over the next couple of years as alluvial fields that are in the path of these huge flows will be eroded or deposited with rich alluvial material.
This sort of event will be better for small prospectors than heavy machinery I think. Hope It's not taken as callous thinking along these lines.
The locals need to be left to their own devices I reckon for some time but tourism will happen again down the track as things pan out.
cheers
Brett

Hi there Byteman, i am next suburb to you, in Kallangur & we are o.k. here, except our local Coles & Woolies have a lot of empty shelves coz of panic buying. Not surprising when the main produce markets in rocklea is under water. The estimated cost of damage throughout all affected regions is going to be in the BILLIONS !
The worst sadly, is the loss of lives & people still missing.
Osama.

Hi Osama, I was in the Burpengary Coles tonight and the place has been hit big-time by panic buying which I found quite surprising as only a small handful of homes actually got flooded in these parts. The fresh fruit and vegetables department was almost completely empty except for capsicums, buk choy, and a few other perished odds and ends. The meat department was fairly bare and virtually all of the milk and bottled water was gone. The bakery department has been completely denuded and has been that way since yesterday. I've got a little land so maybe this will be a good excuse to get some veggies in the ground as prices are set to explode in the future I think. You would probably be familiar with Rocksberg in Upper Caboolture. We went there in the height of the floods and I can tell you that the Caboolture River was absolutely raging. In my opinion this section of river appeared more aggressive than the famous footage seen in Toowoomba's flash flooding incident. Thankfully this part of the river is situated in a fairly remote area.


Mulgadansa, I doubt anyone will think your opinion to be callous. However, you did say "as things pan out" which kinda amused me.

MacRob wrote:Byteman....Hope you are ok up there. Heard some bloke on talk back this morning (did not catch from which organisation) saying that they had completed many tests on 4WD vehicles in moving water and that they are not as safe as many people think. Reckons that .5 to .7 of a metre and they can start to float. Keep safe up there. MacRob

Hi MacRob, I'm not really surprised to hear that many 4WD may indeed float. I gained some insight into my vehicles capabilities (an early nineties GQ Patrol) a few years back when the GF encouraged me to drive through a big puddle on a sandy track. We descended into the puddle gradually and to both our surprise we suddenly dropped down off a ledge and had water just above our wipers. We were stuck there for a few minutes and the engine ticked over happily whilst completely immersed until we finally got out after going forwards and back a few times. When it comes to fast flowing water I'm a lot more cautious. About 70cm is as deep as I'm prepared to go, even though I know I can drive through stagnant water nearly twice as deep.

You are spot on Byteman, about crossing fast flowing water.
Just a tip for anyone who might not know, i would be testing the depth on foot first, with a stick or a branch to make sure no nasty large potholes.
Now they are copping it down in Vic.
O'sama.(the Irish side of the family)