exploring my creek

G'day

There's a creek that runs through the forest at the back of my place that was a big gold mining area back in the day - even though it's hard to find references to it anywhere now... lots of alluvial workings, and also quartz reefs that were apparently very rich.

Went for a decent wander along it today, thought I'd share a few pics - particularly the first one - which is where part of the road's collapsed into a gully, leaving a few layers of the earth exposed - I thought it was kind of interesting - the rest are just to give you an idea of the lay of the land - any thoughts/first impressions from experienced folk more than welcome, I'm just learning about all this - so any pointers you can give me based on the type of creek you're looking at are more than welcome - there IS gold in this creek... and the area around a mine (one of literally dozens in the area) not far from there had nuggets up to 4oz found in the vicinity, according to Trove.

PS I also found a few chinaman's holes up on the banks where they levelled out a bit - and one very big area of digging in one particular area that matches up with some historical notes on the area.



the next one is where a bar of bedrock runs across the creek - someone's obviously been there having a good old dig.



the rest are just continuations of the creek...

ohhh man o man what a creek!!
no wonder there are Chinese workings there --- take care and test this creek very very carefully!!

GDAY RICHMOND

hhhhmmmmm interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good scratchin

cheers the speciman

Richmond nearly every photo there shows great protential. I think it would be a matter of walking the creek and doing test pans.
Cheers wombat

Richmond welcome to the group, looking at your photos, if there was gold in the creek it would not have travelled far at all because of the amount of traps it would encounter in its journey. The fine gold would indeed move in a large flood but there again not far.
If I was testing that creek the very first place I would look is at the base of that red dirt line shown in photo 2 & 7 and the rock bars leading into that line of wash. If gold is present in that creek than you are most likely to find it in that area.
cheers

hi richmond greatphotos have not seen a creek like that in years can you imaging that creek in flood then going back to it after the flood those rock bars need to be looked at very closely take your time take samples and mark every spot the chinese did a through job on ground like this but remember that was over 150 years ago dont give up on it not every spot is going to produce gold What you should do is set out one day and walk that creek without any tools just a marking pen /felt/ mark a rock or a tree you thinkthat area needs looking at remember those rock bars need to be scraped out both back and front and also those corner bends as well take a crevies pump with you to get into those very small cracks and also a crow bar to move some of those larger rocks but also take one or two tie downs that truck driver use the heavy ones if one is not long enough join the two together on to a rock or atree nearby and go for it good luck but just remember it will take a lot of effort dont give up if the land is not yours find out who it belongs to and make an approch to person or gov dept allways be nice and friendly you may have to share with land owner say 10%or 15%but in the end it may allgooood rich rich richmond if you need a hand i am going to retire now only hope your are not in WA go for it ex kiwi

If your not panning get the smallest coil you can as it looks dense on the edges. I love the vertical rock sticking out, I can smell the gold in that !! Shows some great upheaval at some time, and worth a shot.
Pic 2 looks like a giant riffle, grab a waterproof coil and snoop below that rock and anything similar cutting the creek in half.or big enough to cause a back eddie or low pressure behind it.
Pan behind and in front of them if you wish.
Hopefully theres not too much rubbish in the area, barbed wire, fencing wire, rusted roof sheets, bullets, etc.
Looks like a great place to spend the day even for a bush walk. Remember gold is heavy, so where the sediment hits bedrock it should be there especially if there is clay or a vertical obstruction to hold it.
Draw lines from corner to corner mentally, as that should be the line the gold should follow ( the shortest route).
Pan the inside of the curves and downstream from the old diggings.
Good luck, you should get some colour i dare say..

thanks guys for all the replies - will get back there as soon as I can and have a crack!

I see a drain pipe in pic1. Sometimes when they are laid they cut them shorter than 2.4m. So you can reach the first join. There should be a male to female join in it. Suck out the dirt between the pipe join. I have found flecks in them , and actually crawled up a large pipe today to have a pan.
Often the joins open to about 100mm and make good traps.
The thing i like about pipes is that they are always laid in the lowest point of a road/ gulley etc.
WARNING. storm water pipes can contain toxic gasses that you cant smell but send you into a permanent sleep!!!! Dont go into them if they have rotting vegetation, etc in them either. As this releases gasses, that will over come you and kill you..
Larger box culverts also have joins depending on the design, but in summer in remote areas be warned as pigs love the cool weather and protection they provide..As do snakes and all other creepy crawlies... Have fun!!!

Hi Richmond.That's a really interesting creek you've got there.My wife and I have had plenty of experience locating gold in such a scenario.You can view any number of my videos on crevicing if you put my login in the Youtube search engine.Put in tfa40729 and you'll see I have quite a few gold videos.I would be happy to hook up with you to explore the potential of your creek.I'm assuming its a Victorian location of course.I myself am based in Melbourne. Let us know if you're interested and we can make arrangements .Cheers,Trev.

p.s. this is the link to one of my Youtubes......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHGOIVRiUgA