Daylight creek Sunny Corner

Went to do some panning at sunny corner the other day,looking for a new spot came across daylight ck
this greek runs just below the old sunny corner mine and to my surprise there are signs all along the creek
dont drink or wash in these waters,the water was a bright orange colour.
Did no panning thought if i put my hands in this water they might drop off,,
Not Happy....

GOLDROCS

See here :

http://www.ecotox.org.au/aje/archives/vol9p69.pdf

Thanks for the info jig...Still not a nice place to pan....

Goldrocs....

I want to go up there detecting, as I am getting a bit bored going to Hill End all the time. Trouble is, few people go, or if they do go, they certainly don't share any info. I find the whole idea a bit daunting with no clues at all about what areas to try
Cheers,
Jig.

Sunny Corner (NSW)
The numerous warning signs there are for toxins used to spray the blackberry bushes (the chemical is called "Rust" because as the plants die, the leaves turn a rusty color on the edges). There are also several other warning signs: One is for logging exclusion zones (don't venture into those during the period stated on the signs) and others are located near the numerous old mineshafts that caution against noxious gasses seeping from the shaft entrances. Since Rust is sprayed near the waterways, you can't drink the water as it's probably carcinogenic. Also, a lot of mercury and cyanide was used around here around the 1870s-1930s. Wash your hands with fresh water before using them to eat food if working in the creeks when Rust and other herbicides are sprayed.

Daylight Creek gave up gold in the late 1800s (as did Bob's Creek) and was used as a getaway 'road' by bushrangers who then made their way towards Portland. The Toppo maps show some of these areas named after their bushranger origins. Some feral pigs here but those ants I dislike are pretty much everywhere. Park Rangers do patrol here in pairs so be sure to have your NSW State Forest Fossicking permits if you're going into the State Forrests.

There's a lot of VERY DEEP mineshafts dotted around the place so be very careful if exploring. Some people I know of spend a lot of time underground exploring the shafts but the dangers at Sunny Corner are higher than in some other locations due to the seepage of toxic gas and the effect of water and flooding on the old tumber supports which collapse often.

Jig, I've found some gold at sunny corner but not a lot. I found my first piece of gold panning in a creek at Dark Corner but the ground there is shockingly mineralized from the other metals (including silver) which litter the ground in black smudges. Sunny Corner is full of small reefs that have been dug up over the years by various parties and occasionally I'll find a deep chanel where someone has recently carted off a section of exposed reef that they've found whilst detecting there. There's a bit of activity from dirt bikers and there are hunters that leave a LOT of garbage and ammo casings from hunting the many rabbits and foxes that live in the region. There's often forrestry officials making measurements and taking pictures in the area and we sometimes help them get across the creeks when they struggle with surveying equipment.

The area has two gold deposits so the types of gold found are different in appearance. The fresh stuff is from about 15 million years ago an this is where the coarse reef-gold was deposited from. The mudslides from the volcanoes in the area covered up the gold deposits from a much earlier series of eruptions (possibly about 100 million years ago) and evidence of the two deposits of debris can be found in the lower lying creeks where stones (once composed of mud) are embedded with rounded pebbles from the much earlier creek beds laid down after the first eruptions. (see example below).


Those pepples in the rock are from the original creekbed - they were picked up my mud and lava flows (which formed the rock).

The most interesting stuff is harder than concrete and looks light-grey (people assume it's cement from a torn up road base). The gold from the earliest deposit is usually underneath that. The area of Sunny Corner is situated directly below Dark Corner. The mines there closed in the early 1930s due to flooding. They were getting a paltry 5g per tone when they closed. Plenty of State Forest in both districts. The Pine plantations are mostly in Sunny Corner. To the East (towards Sydney) is the town of Portland which also produced some gold. Whilst each of these areas do give up gold, its hard work finding it (ask anyone who has visited). There's signs of dredging in the smaller creeks each time it rains. Plenty of families go there to camp and picnic. The snakes I've seen there are Red Bellied Black Snakes (Dark & Sunny Corner), Copperheads (Sunny Corner) and a Brown Snake (Dark Corner). Jumping ants are in all locations including Portland and I found one scorpion in Portland which actually crawled across my hand as I was leaning on a mound of dirt (pretty harmless).

I'd tell anyone asking about Sunny Corner that yes, gold has been found there in the past and even in recent days by modern prospectors. But it's not an area known for large quantities of gold and has been described numerously as a "small, modest goldfield at best". A good publication that covers the districts in question is 'The Glint Of Gold' ($55) - which remains in short supply in the detecting stores as it is now discontinued and will not be replublished (according to the Authors). The reason why Sunny Corner is often mentioned by NSW prospectors is because it is close to Sydney and less than 2 hours from Penrith via the Great Western Hwy. There's a major service station (Shell?) that is just 1km past the Sunny Corner turn off (ion the left when heading towards Bathurst) where a meal can be had. Under the previous owners, the hot breakfasts there were great. Under the new owners, I've had an upset stomach after eating there twice in the last year... and one other prospector has said he experienced similar... so use your own sensibilities with the locally prepared foods. Some prospectors tell me they stay at the truckstop type motel there although it looks a little beat up. The Service station administers the accomodation there.

It's close enough to Sydney to be an ideal spot to pan or detect and if you depart home in the morning around 7am, you can be eating brunch in the Goldfields by 9:30am and be home for tea... Although short trips like that will likely be least productive compared to spending a few days there at a time, they can occasionally pay off with an enjoyable day, some great pictures and a little gold if you're panning in the right places. For detecting, the most successful person I've seen recently was a new chum with his first detector (GPX-4500) who only used a DD coil and avoided digging anything ferrous. Exactly where he was is a bit of a mystery although he was close to the main town and found plenty of lead with his gold.

Some pics below which might be useful.


A sign at Sunny Corner warning not to eat the berries when Rust is being sprayed


A sign at Sunny Corner warning of the dangers near the mine shafts.


A sign at Sunny Corner warning against entering specific areas during active periods of logging.


There's a reason for the lock on the gate at the Main Mine at Sunny Corner.


This is the first impression most people get of Sunny Corner: Pine Plantations. Dozer scapings can be a problem here for detectors.It might look boring, but this photogrpah pretty much sums up the most common view of Sunny Corner.


Bring your snake gaiters for the long grass at Dark Corner. Fair bit of junk around here too.


The first piece of gold we found in the area.


Between Sunny Corner & Dark Corner ... Big Cat Country! Nearby township of Portland has had sightings. The Bathurst rangers say they won't wander out at dusk for just this reason. The mountain on the left in the distance is literally home to millions of those large, painful jumping ants.


A fine example of Sunny Corner gold.


More Sunny Corner gold.


One of the small, inoffensive scorpions from the area.


My wife reading a book as I pan by one of my favourite spots.


Time to leave... (Big Cat Country)!


Panning alongside another prospector near the town.


One of my favourite creeks here was recently roped off with an electric fence for some farmer's cows to use.


The old Stamper Battery and Puddler are still on display at Sunny Corner. Be sure to close the gate when you enter and leave. It's Crown Land but don't bother detecting on this property as it might be subject to a protection order alongside the Mine at the end of the Road (which IS subject to a protection order).


Panning in the creeks rarely produces much gold but you can certainly find a little if you look. And it's often possible to drive right up to a suitable spot.


Copperhead Snake. Very timid - like the Red Bellied Black Snakes.



If you are lucky, you might find some little bits of reef gold near the main town of Sunny Corner but there's a bit of junk there. The little "button" of gold (far right) appears have been dropped or lost by whoever melted it. The melted lead was a big letdown. Possibly from old musket balls that melted in the heat of a bushfire.


Sunny Corner is elevated and is sometimes snow covered during winter weather spells.

Nero_ design, just like to say what a comprehensive & informative thread you have given us. I will probably never go there as I'm in Queensland & for other obvious reasons, however thanks for giving us your time with all those photos etc, welldone mate, cheers yibidavid!

Marco,
Thanks for that. I guess I will have to go up there and just spend a weekend pottering around.
Jigalong.

another top post both in photos and script ! well done Nero

What a good read...and great pics...thanks nero_design. It looks like a beautiful spot....I know blackberries are a noxious weed but I do like eating them. We used to spend days in the bush as kids feasting on blackberries and they sprayed them way back then too.

Once again, some great pics Nero. What camera do you use. ?
Brings back some great memories, explored that whole district back in the 80's & 90's. Hard to find detectable gold back then too.
Jigalong, there's another spot that might be worth a look - its called Napoleon Reef - a bit further west (about 18ks. before Bathurst). some old diggings there. Its marked on Meadow Flat topo. map 1: 25000.
Slainte, Geronimo.

Thanks Geronimo - I will have a look at Napoleon Reef. I also keep noticing a turn-off just north of Goulburn on the highway - to some reef- not sure if it was gold.
Jigalong

Nero, thanks for a most insightful post. I live 3000kms from the place, but really enjoyed learning about its history . cheers Pete.

Orange water = Cyanide.
Just chew on a bit of charcoal from the fire each morning

Decades ago I was chased out of a river by a copperhead snake. The one I encountered was not shy.

Otherwise great photography!

Napoleon Reef (next to Sunny Corner)

The Napoleon Reef location is just past Sunny Corner (on the right) and the turnoff is only a kilometer and a half (I think) from the Service Station/Truck Stop that you pass on the left. I made my way there some years ago and found myself surrounded by private property and warning signs reminding me of this. Approaching the reef from the Sunny Corner side is too arduous (you need to cross a couple of mountains on foot) and requires entering a large Nature Reserve which is protected by the Forestry and State Forest Rangers (thus detecting is forbidden there).

If you decide to explore the Napoleon Reef area, you'll enter a flat region as you turn off the Great Western Hmy to the right which is subdivided into small lots with a house on most of them. Large chunks of quartz can be seen on the fence posts of some of the driveways so it's obvious the locals there are familiar with the history of the place.

I tried to find somewhere that wasn't privately owned and was unable to do so at the time. I also had quite a few people with me at the time so I didn't think it was ideal to door-knock and seek permission (it's always better to do this alone or with one other person in your party). We stopped at a couple of spots on the road that led to the final property that occupies the reef's mining location and there were "keep out" signs there so i ended up pulling over. We explored a creekbed (this was during the drought) which was dried up and the signs on the ground looked very promising. But after a while I discovered that even the creek was fenced off and I'd managed to walk to it over the only section of fence that had collapsed due to termites or something. The fence wire was the first thing I picked up with the detector but only then did I realize I was trespassing (if only by a few meters) so we left. To be fair, I don't think I've ever met anyone who has been given permission to detected the area. Might have been someone on this forum about 5 years ago who said they went there and found a lot of junk near the old workings (there was once a Stamper battery there at the base of the mountains).

Some pictures I took when I was there a few years ago... we didn't take many unfortunately:


Some signs of diggings in front of the last property before the reef.


Nice, stained quartz.


Typical iron stained quartz with terminated crystals can be found everywhere. Unfortunately it appears to be entirely private property these days.


Some promising looking ground here but even this view masks the house directly behind me (when I was taking this picture) which had the occupants watching every car that went by.

Gday Nero,
In your previous photos,the second last pic with the gold button,what are the objects on the middle left under the large rusty nail and above the heavy calibre projectiles?
They look like Meterorites?

  when i came across this forum.... 
I have been studying this area for over a year. The water quality is the worst I have seen during all my studies. Acid mine drainage of rain water from open or not properly managed abadoned mine shafts has cause the ph of the water to be as low as 2 which is highly acidic. If you understand the chemistry of this you would know that means its would be lower before it undergoes chemical reactions that make it slightly more basic, which worries me more. Life apart from algae is virtually non existant in the water, except those species that are tolerant of metals and salinity. Chemistry analysis has determined that heavy metals and other trace metals are way above safe levels. Basically I'd strongly advise against anyone coming into contact with this water for any reasons. The signs are there for a reason.

G'day waterscientist

I realize you must be telling us this for a reason, these mineshafts are probably well over 100 years old and have been full of water for awhile now I guess. The water became acid from what means do you think. Is the rest of the ground water in bores or well in the area the same also, if not why not.

When it's all said and done most of us just detect the surface of the ground where it's dry and not saturated/wet.

I would suggest that i's not a good idea to clean the gold you have just dug up in your mouth, as there are still plenty out there that do this.

cheers dave

waterscientist wrote:  when i came across this forum.... 
I have been studying this area for over a year. The water quality is the worst I have seen during all my studies. Acid mine drainage of rain water from open or not properly managed abadoned mine shafts has cause the ph of the water to be as low as 2 which is highly acidic. If you understand the chemistry of this you would know that means its would be lower before it undergoes chemical reactions that make it slightly more basic, which worries me more. Life apart from algae is virtually non existant in the water, except those species that are tolerant of metals and salinity. Chemistry analysis has determined that heavy metals and other trace metals are way above safe levels. Basically I'd strongly advise against anyone coming into contact with this water for any reasons. The signs are there for a reason.    

You can drink from some of the creeks out there
Waterscientist !
But not all of em !
There are fish called slippery / river blackfish
In all the creeks out there that hold water !
And yabbies and frogs / tadpoles and so forth !
The gold that comes out the creeks has mercury attached to some of it !
There are mines that do leak minerals/chemicals
But it's not as bad as what your saying to your health !
Lots go out there and have done since the gold rush
And don't have 6 fingers on each hand !
And when you do come across gold on the higher ground
And above the water line whilst detecting
It doesn't have mercury attached .
Maybe your out there with a real good spot your
Trying to keep secret   
   but you are right some of the areas are toxic !
Maybe if you look where the water is being supplied from in different directions
You'll see we're the drinkable stuff is