Panning the Palmer

Has anyone ever panned the Palmer River near the Roadhouse? What would be the best month as it doesn`t look to have much water at times. I`m planning a future trip over and would like to use the Roadhouse as a base. Read about the large goldfield there, seems it would be a good place to start detecting for someone who knows nothing and has never found a nugget with a detector but is determined to make a go of it. Should be other artifacts as well. is there a possibility of a stray saphire? Need all the help I can get.