Prospecting around Lambing Flat/Young NSW

Are there many areas around Young that have public access for detecting, due to its historical significance in the 1860's.

try this site jacktar

http://users.tpg.com.au/dtdan/young.htm

Wow found myself on that site !!

Hey there Jacktar,

I never had an interest in gold when I grew up in Young but I remember playing in the old diggings. We thought there must have been lots of wombats that used to live there but we never ever saw any evidence of any current residents. That's because they were not wombat holes.

Since I got the gold bug I've been back a few times to check places out. The old diggings I remember were all in town and have houses over them now. The dedicated fossicking area is mostly decomposed granite where the fine gold is spread pretty evenly through the area. It didn't seem to matter where we dug we got about the same amount of gold per bucket after panning.

Burrangong creek back then was very overgrown and lined with weeds/reeds. There's not enough regular flow to have rocks on the bottom of the creek its mostly water dribbling through the grass. A few years ago the council cleared all the crap/trees and stuff from the creek, smoothed the banks and put in a walking track. All those old diggings are now pushed over to form a gentle slope. There has to be gold in it but there's a hell of a lot of junk. As of 12 months ago it's accessible to the public all the way through town which is where a lot of the diggings were. Random pans from around town showed the same very small jagged gold bits. I found gold in the pan everywhere I tried but none of it big enough to detect.

All of the mines I've researched in the area were deep shafts onto alluvial beds and out of town a few reefs but all deep. Reading the reports it never sounded good for nuggets on the surface but the old timers found plenty of nuggets. Interestingly enough though the first payable gold strike there was only 3 metres deep in the creek out near chillingworks road. There is little to no exposed bedrock along burrangong creek from Western side of Young township all the way out to the Airport. The richest alluvial mine of the rush was approximately near the corner where VIDEO EASY is at the moment. That's all I can remember at the moment. I don't ever remember seeing anyone with a metal detector while we were growing up.


Hope this helps \
Dicko..

Thank's for the great reply chopppacalamari/Dicko, I hope to travel through there soon, my real interest is in Frank Gardiner, Ben Hall John Gilbert, etc, bushrangers that operated in that area as I have a Doco on Utube " Ben Hall Bushranger" and that area was very rich in gold deposits so combining detecting and history for me go hand in hand, but any artifacts of that period would be a great find ie Gold Soverigns etc, once more thanks

Mark

Make sure you drop into Wombat on your way. Just down from the pub is a very small general store. That store (rebuilt) is the location of the butchery that was robbed for 600 pounds during the gold rush days. Robbed by gardiner or one of those well known boys. After leaving there they apparently stopped off at the hotel half way back to Young and stocked up on alcohol then took off into the bush.

That hotel was a two story bordello with brick foundations which burnt down in 1910. We excavated about 2 square metres when we were kids and got heaps of broken china, some half melted costume jewellery and some knives and forks. Our intention was to find the cellar as it was just covered with dirt after the fire. Too much hard work so we gave up. Just a few short years before I got into detecting, the current owners had the rubble and surrounding topsoil pushed into the old underground well which was still intact and built a house there. I'm guessing there was probably a few soveriegns that went into the well that day.

Dicko..

Thanks for the reply Dicko, Frank Gardiner ran a butchery in Young early 1860's with a man named William Fogg who was from the Fish river area, I was reserching some old papers and found this article you might be intrested in as you are from the distrist. and for anyone else intrested.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/60477330

Mark

Thanks Mark I'm going to get lost for hours at that website now.

Dicko..

So, are you saying that although the Young field and its surrounding area yielded a lot of alluvial gold, including nuggets, it is not really detector territory unless mullock heap scraping? The country to some extent looks the same from Yass right through to Young and beyond. In old gold areas, such as young where the gold was concentrated in creek bed alluvial, what are the detecting options really like? What areas are worth a look in such a large area.
On a recent scouting visit I did notice some scrape and dig holes in the so called fossicking area -which sadly is also being used as a bit of a local tip. It's also slap bang in town so you can imagine how much attention it has seen. Best option I think would be surrounding areas, but if anyone has some useful knowledge it would be appreciated. If anyone is up for a look see and detect over the next few months, let me know! Lady at the local musuem said the whole town is built on diggings and occasionally the odd big hole opens up! I think you also need to be able to negotiate access to private land because the whole area is fenced and therefore owned.