Ophir NSW.

hey all, just wondering if anyone can advise me on Ophir in NSW?. I have been through there once and looks the part, I have also heard of a few large nuggets coming out of there with metal detectors..
cheers
Tim.

Hi Tim, I've been going to Ophir for 20+ years now...love the place!
Losts of smaller stuff still coming out of there and no doubt a lot of big ones still just waiting for some bugger to walk over it.
In the last couple of weeks there's been a few in the 20 to 40 gr range unearthed.

Camping facilities are brilliant, though can get busy at holiday times with locals from orange. Real dunnies and running water.

My first ever nugget was a 2 1/2 oz beauty I found in the actual camp grounds 3 feet from a garbo bin. I had a brand new vlf detector, no idea and was testing it out on bottle caps.
On the dunny wall at the Springhill Ck camp ground is a large basic map of the gold fields, most of the well known areas accessable by normal sedan or on foot. Some of the better areas are best accessed in a 4x4 or better still a quad.

The camp ground itself is smack bang in the middle of the fields right on the river. A good feed of yabbies can be had there too.
If there's rain in the area DONT camp on the other side of the river. It can rise at the drop of a hat and I've seen an ex-ambulance float off down and over the forde.

Take a pair of binoculars with you, the sky at night is gorgeous. Naked eye you can see the large and small Magellenic clouds. Pliades and a few globular cluster. Binos you'll see Orion nebular plus a stack of other wonders.

Never seen her myself, but a lot of people have claimed to, the word is don't camp on the slab next to the dunnies... the ghost of Mabel Pearl will pay you a visit!

hey, thanks for the info madtuna, yeah it is a beautiful place out there and I bet there is trout in the creeks too. I will be out that way over Easter to give it a shot, im more the sort of person to get away from the known places and walk the hills so will be trying to cover some virgin ground. I was told that alot of the gold out that way is associated with the deep leads (old river gravels on the hills) so I guess searching for these old river gravels would be a good idea.
cheers
Tim.

Madtuna, My wife fancies herself to be a ghost-hunter... any more info on Mabel Pearl?

Cheers

Marco

maybe you should get her a ghoul detector?

Sheila.

I'll be sweeping the hills and gullys out that way tomorrow...I'll let u know how I get on. Being the oldest (payable) gold discovery in Australia I dare say she has been hit very hard. Still, I have managed to pick a few little fellas out of the ground in areas very close to Ophir.

Marco, give Bob Buss a ring or ask some of the locals, who would know more than me, but i can tell you what I've been told.

Rumour has it Bob wont even camp there anymore. Never heard it from him, heard it from others.
From what I heard Mabel was going up or down the hill at Springhill Creek and a horse and cart was coming the other way. The two met in the middle and some how Mabel took a tumble over the edge breaking her neck and landing somewhere near the dunnies.

A few months ago I was speaking to a couple of detectorists I've camped with out there with a few times over the years, very credible fair dinkum trustworthy blokes, and one of them told me about when he camped near the dunnies and had a run in with her.
He said you never actually see her, just a mist, and a cold feeling aswell as feeling very uncomfortable though not scared. He said you feel you just have an urgent need to get out of there because you are tresspassing but you can't move.

Now I don't believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Elvis is still alive or that tin foil hats do anything other than make you look stupid, but as for Mabel Pearll I have an open mind as to there being something odd that happens there that makes people very uncomfortable.

In 20+ years of going to Ophir I've heard remarkably simillar encounters from more than a few people, one being an elderly lady on a travelling holiday around Australia. She dragged her husband out of bed at about 3am and demanded they pack up camp right there and then and get the hell out of there. This lady was visibly shaking.

cue the twighlight zone music

Thanks a bunch Madtuna.
As much as I've never seen anything of a "ghostly nature", I've been spooked a few times when digging. Usually at late dusk. It gets creepy out there as the light fades near (or in) the darker forests. Plenty of lost lives out there in the early days and that tends to stir the imagination when you're alone.

Again, many thanks.

Marco

Marco, All.
Hey Marco, your not jumping at shadows are you? I thought I was the only one to do that

Ophir Map for anyone who needs:




The below is part of the map on the Toilet wall in Ophir Camping ground(not real clear though):



Also this map of Ophir i found on the net the other day with McConnell's workings (wonder if he is a relative ):



Corey....

Hi when my Uncle bought his first gold detector in 1978 he and his shifty mate went to Orange area to find there fortune.
Along the road near Orange they hoped out of there car and run test just of the side of the road and got a signal and dug up a 5oz nugget.
He still detects today and never lost the gold fever bug.