Teetulpa, Ulooloo, Mintaro, Clare, Mongolata S.A.

Hi im a noob to SA prospecting. What are the rules on prospecting in Teetulpa, Ulooloo, Echunga, Mintaro, Clare, Mongolata, Wadnaminga ETC? Or can you only fossick in the designated areas at Mt Lofty etc near Adelaide.

Is there crown land in these areas to fossick or is it all private properety?

Thanks Nuggs

G'day nuggs

Firstly welcome to this great gold forum mate, the best in oz..

All the land in sth oz is either private or leasehold, there is no crown land as such left,
its either pastoral,private,or national pk's reserves etc, and as far as areas close to adelaide go
in my opinion mount crawford forestry reserve $2 per day is the best area for getting onto good gold.
The old echunga diggings on diggings rd used to be not to bad but these days they are thrashed beyond
belief and only panning at the old national dam will get gold and very little at that.
Jupiter ck is much the same and water needs to be carted in for panning there.

ULOOLOO goldfield
is all on private pastoral land, and permission is fully needed from the land holder, i think his name is malcolm Kelly
from memory and the station name is "sunshine".
Some good solid gold found here mate so its worth the try for permission.

MINTARO

Again is all private property with green pasture paddocks, permission a must but very hard to get.
very small area and limeted gold.

CLARE

some gold found in the main roads quary on the nth side of town and out in spring gully national pk only.

MONGOLATA

The main area of gold deposits is on the range of broken hills to the west of mongolata stn,
all the area is under lease and permission again is next to impossible to get from the owners.
mongolata stn itself will give permission to detect but there is absolutley no gold on the area exept on
the range mentioned..

TEETULPA

Again is fully under lease and the main "Brady's gully" is under lease by murrey raymond and all entry is forbiden
and permission is not granted due to murrey working the ground with a dozer/sluice set up every day and he is
not to be messed around with at all , great fellow but sick of people encroaching on his leases..

So in a nutshell you have Mt Crwaford to train your skills on but for serious gold head to VIctoria or over here to WA.
if you dont mind panning i can put you onto some good areas up the Torrens river.
There is also an area out near Cromer past Birdwood that has some good fine gold also.
Also 6th ck up corkscrew rd at custambul has fine gold and the odd small nugget to be found.

Hey, get out there and read the ground, have a bash at the areas i suggest and should you need more help
i have tons of old files from my early days chasing gold in sth oz that may help you out nuggsy...

All the best in your hunting the colour.

Pete in WA

Awesome info Pete thanks.

I'm waiting for delivery of a GP3500. Should be here in a couple of days hopefully. Then i can get out there on the fields.
Your info is (pardon the pun) GOLD lol

I've always wanted to get to WA for a fossick. I will get there one day (hopefully soon).
As they say info is power, so any info on were to go panning or detecting in SA, or anywhere else for that matter, would be great.

Thanks Nuggs !!

Nuggsy


Will send you a Private message after work mate with some areas to get the gold in sth oz



Pete in WA

...and the Barossa Goldfields are privately owned and what isn't is Heritage listed. I formerly owned a property in the Barossa Goldfields..having lived in South Australia for years you are virtually wasting your time as unlike the Victorian Government the S.A. Government has not had the foresight to make available sizeable lands for recreational fossickers/detectorists and they all fancy themselves as Greenies anyway <unless there's a quid in it for themselves>......as its all locked up tightly and unavailable by Heritage Listings or privately owned what is available is absolutely thrashed to death and much rubbish...by the many who can only avail themselves of very small areas to legally detect...good luck in Mt Crawford..been there done it... nothing like whats available in Victoria.. save your dollars and spend them in Victoria by heading over to the Golden Triangle which still has available, huge amounts of State Forests etc where you can legally detect with your Victorian Miners Right..and by S.A. standards you are actually encouraged to spend money in their towns and detect locally in the fields...not saying it will guarantee you will find gold however the ground is here to at least follow your passion..unless you can get private approval in S.A. in which case you will be kicked off immediately they suspect you are finding some....give S.A. a big miss and go to W.A. or Victoria which is more enlightened as far as gold detecting is concerned but no areas are easy which is a fact of life in Australia today but S.A. even less so...IMO...good luck...Hoo Roo

When Nuggs asked that question I thought to myself... he is asking a lot. But Beepinpete came up with all the answers and more.
Onya Pete. If that don't give nuggs a start nothing will.

Panther

Hi Nuggs
I fully agree with Beepinpete and the info he has given is first class .
The only thing I can add is I have spent a lot of time detecting those main areas mentioned in SA and whilst I have pulled a few nice nuggets the time spent between finds is very long and in my opinion not worth the trouble, not all is a waste of time as you will learn how to operate your machine and the areas in Mt Crawford are very mineralised and comparable to Vic, when you cross the border the available areas are vast and your gold take will improve and it's well worth the effort in traveling.
Good luck and most importantly have fun out there.
Cheers Mark

WOW!! You guys are awesome.
I sort of thought SA had some issues with prospecting. From what i have read SA is pretty backwards in everything. I have only been in SA 2 years and i am starting to regret it. I know the golden triangle area in vic is very accessible to prospectors, as Vic is were i came from.

Thanks for the info guys...

Nuggsy

go up gorge rd until the intersection of gorge rd and the turn off to the right to lobathal, appx 1 klm further up the gorge rd just before a tight hairpin
to the right, on the lft side is a large area of gravel wash in the torrens, i have panned and sluiced many oz's of fine and detected some
small nuggets with the goldbug2 yrs ago.
be carefull not to enter the cuddlee ck conservation park just before the area mentioned as this will get ya in a load of trouble
from the G man....

Also go up corkscrew rd appx 1.5 klm until a small bridge crosses the 6th ck, upstream is private land (no go) downstream is ok
for about 400mtrs for fine gold and small nuggets,know of a bloke who hit a rich pocket with 17oz there..
Look out for BLUE clay in this ck as it holds the best gold, fine gold can be got by pulling up weeds on the bank and shaking the
grits into a pan and panning off...... this ck also has the cleanest water in adelaide with many swimming holes and good to drink..








Pete in WA
ex ingle farm,beverly,rostrevor & hope valley

My point was South Australia is not conducive to gold detecting with a detector,they do not encourage it,and you are forever looking over your shoulder as landowners wont generally have a bar of a detectorist near their property's.....<South Australians did not come from convict stock as they will constantly tell you and are different/aloof towards the common bloke!! I only lived there for many years and am proud to say I am not one I'm a Qldr..>..pity they wont consider the benefits of setting aside more fossicking grounds like Vic,but as they are generally pseudo greenies, its the towns that miss out on the income if they actually encouraged anyone to come to their areas...
Beepinpete< I am not talking out of my derriere here..my brother owns a large property on Institute Road just down from your Corkscrew Road you mentioned <and the areas of the first gold discovery's in the Hills Castanbul as you would know>.....all the private landowners in that area including my brother <ex Vietnam> are dead set against anyone going on to their property's...and are constantly on the lookout for fossickers, so from my own experience you will find yourself so unwelcome and always looking over your shoulder..same in the Barossa goldfields where I owned my property,adjoining landowners to mine held same attitudes plus its all heritage...and the same large numbers just keep going to the same old spots like Echunga and when the gold is gone it doesnt grow like mushrooms in winter....it just aint worth it and all too hard for such piddling likely gain and that was my point....go to the States that encourage detecting..I could not believe the massive areas that are actually available in Victoria and in relation to S.A. I can confirm we are actually welcomed to detect..<and there is still some gold available>....there is no doubt there is still gold in S.A and you will do better panning than detecting IMO but try and legally get near a stream in the Hills without the angst of locals.....just try to get near it legally.....near impossible...Hoo Roo

G'day nuggs, you may find the Torrens River is no go for prospecting. Adelaide Water catchment. Also the Onkaparinga into Mt Bold.Black Snake near Cromer is not bad if you can get access.

ex Mt Pleasant,Birdwood

A good site on SA

www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/.../IS_M09_web_203924.pdf

Thanks for all the info guys.. prospekta that web site link is not opening but thanks anyway. I will keep searching.

I think i will have to organize a trip to Vic. Probably around Stawell or Ararat areas, to have any chance of finding anything. I will do some research on those areas.

B eeinpete, have sent you a PM, thanks Mike

S.A gold is hard to find no doubt about it...but keeping that in mind it does great things to your prospecting skills(makes you think more about geology, your machine and settings etc). There is still gold out the spots as mentioned by Beepinpete but it is just one of those cases of finding the colour where the other blokes have either not tried or are too lazy to put in a bit of extra work in.I like to look at it in a different way, if you can find nugs in S.A your skills and experience will only benefit you in other richer parts of the Australian goldfields.

Hi all im a noobie to all this, by the sounds of things im in the wrong state ah well u get that anyway nice to see such helpfull info from you guys I might have to head to Vic or WA I guess ah well I have a WA miners rights paper that I got in 91 dont know if it is still valid but looking on youtube seems very interesting finds, maybe i will park myself at Norseman then go looking from there? Who knows just dreaming 4now

Nice info thanks 4 that when i have time will go & have a look.

Copy this into google. or try to open
www.minerals.pir.sa.gov.au/publications_and.../information_sheets

Look for M09

Tunkillo, Finnis, Currency Creek
Pt Pirie, look at the Flinders.
Stay away from that Lead(pb)

wow tunky, really?

Im fairly new to this, but all the old research ive found hasnt led me there yet.

thanks for the info guys.. it's hard finding the colour here in SA, still looking for my first.

No doubt one day ill find my first bit, hopefully that wont involve a weekender to vic for it though

Johny

Tunkillo, the mines are along the Mt Pleasant/Tunkillo rd.
Also along the range as you drop down into Palmer.
Private property as is most of SA. Do your research, try and get some access and away you go.
The geoscience scanned 1:250000 maps have good detail for these areas.

Hey guys

In S.A can you sell any gold you find?

Cheers,

Alex

Alex, you sure can, depends on how much you have. P.W. becks will refine and buy. We use them and they are great. There is refining charge so you have to weigh up if is worth going down that track, or take some good pictures and sell on Ebay

Beepinpete, you do come up with lots of info for gold sites in SA. Fantastic. Its a pity that a fire went through the records department years ago and destroyed a lot (I believe all) of valuable information sometime in 20's, - old mines and how much was recorded from them mines. We know of a couple sites which some now passed on old timers told us about and have been and looked at old diggings/shafts. They are all on private property but property owners have let us on and showed us spots. One owner had photos of one mine being worked - very old and grainy. I have detected areas and yes gold it there. Its interesting but adjoining property owners do not even know these sites exist or are not interested. Old information is now just about long lost Such a pity.
travelergold

is that why it's hard getting allot of information on SA... im having a hard time finding much at all except what the mines department currently knows

Johny

Travelergold

Dont mean to be rude,
Sorry if i'm coming over the top of you here but it is actualy illegal to sell gold in sth aus unless you have
a sth aus miners right, if you dont have one then your activities come under the heading of "Fossicking"
and therefore gold is only allowed to be kept as a curio or mineral specimen BY law that is

More info here
http://outernode.pir.sa.gov.au/minerals/licensing_and_regulation/mining_operations/frequently_asked_questions/faq_fossick


Pete

P.S: The new s.a mines dept online mapping and info page "SARIG" is now very good,unlike the old model.
Link to SARIG: https://sarig.pir.sa.gov.au/Map


Pete

Hey,

SA has a very screwed up system from what I understand.

I cant find a simple page that tells me the price of a miners right.

Unlike VIC that has one page that is easy to understand and you can just sign up there.

travelergold wrote:Alex, you sure can, depends on how much you have. P.W. becks will refine and buy. We use them and they are great. There is refining charge so you have to weigh up if is worth going down that track, or take some good pictures and sell on Ebay

Beepinpete, you do come up with lots of info for gold sites in SA. Fantastic. (I believe all) of valuable information sometime in 20's, - old mines and how much was recorded from them mines. We know of a couple sites which some now passed on old timers told us about and have beenIts a pity that a fire went through the records department years ago and destroyed a lot and looked at old diggings/shafts. They are all on private property but property owners have let us on and showed us spots. One owner had photos of one mine being worked - very old and grainy. I have detected areas and yes gold it there. Its interesting but adjoining property owners do not even know these sites exist or are not interested. Old information is now just about long lost Such a pity.
travelergold

Unless you can make reference to an authoritive source, I suggest that your inference or claim is incorrect. I have been into the SA Mines Dept and their records are very complete and comprehensive. The claim that 'records were destroyed' is a common one used by some people, often in Government Departments who are either too lazy or not interested in helping you to find answers to your questions. It is also a common 'mantra' often used when making enquiries under Freedom of Information Act.

I visited Mongolata in the late 70's, interesting to see the old stamper battery, there was not much there back then and you didn't have to worry, about angry claim owners.
Thought I would go back and have a look this year 2013, checked the pirsa map, large claim, one by Kevin Wallis, incorporating the stamper battery. Read Kevin held tours, tried ringing the number found on internet, disconnected, rang Kooringa Hotel, they say Kevin hadn't been there for about 5 years. Look again at pirsa map and a large claim area belongs to AUCUCO Ltd, main office in Maitland NSW, search white pages, no phone number. Is this area still working, the claim lease is valid until 2015, but can't contact anyone, only want to see the old Government Battery. Anyone with some recent information. Thank you John

G'day Johnno

Mate tottally forget the mongy field head nth thru the last gate and go nutha
4 klicks to slatey ck.
Hit the nth side 200 ft west of the crossing, panning fine gold only no nuggets take water.