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Steve's 2011 Australia Gold Adventure


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The July 2016 issue of the ICMJ magazine contains an article I wrote reprising my 2011 trip to Australia to hunt gold with Chris Ralph and Jonathan Porter.

There was of course a lot more to say about the trip than was contained in the article, and in particular I have a lot more photos to share. I kept a diary while on the trip, and this thread is intended to provide a much more detailed look at the trip. I will keep posting on this thread in a serial fashion similar to what I did with my Alaska gold adventures with my diary providing daily details.

It all started in 2010 at the old AMDS Adventure Forum when I made this post on a thread:

"Hi murph,

You know, for many years it was my dream to go hunt nuggets in Australia. I got Doug Stone's books and read everything else I could and dreamed of those monster nuggets.

But as years went by I read between the lines and figured it is a tough go to find the big nuggets in Australia these days. The fact is you only read about people making finds, but plenty of visitors to Oz find no gold. There is always the home team advantage. It is not so much what you know as who you know, and I'll always have a tremendous advantage in Alaska just because I've lived here all my life. Though I do have a few contacts in Oz that might give me a leg up on the average visitor. Still, it may be that my chance to visit Australia is coming as my circumstances have taken a turn for the better. So maybe in a couple years?"

That in turn generated a response from famed Australian gold prospector Jonathan Porter:

"Steve I will tell you this, if you ever decide to visit Australia it would be my pleasure to show you around. There is still plenty of potential here in Australia, the auriferous areas are just too extensive and in some cases very inaccessible so there just has to be good nugget patches waiting for someone gutsy enough to come along and swing their coil over that first lump. I intend to get into some tiger country this year and could do with a good partner who doesn't need a gold fix every day, interested? - JP"

It turns out that JP and ICMJ Associate editor Chris Ralph had been discussing the possibility of a joint prospecting trip in Australia. I had met Chris previously when I had invited him up to visit my Moore Creek pay-to-mine operation several years earlier. A few messages were passed back and forth offline, and I was fortunate enough to be invited to join in on the adventure. Trying to pick the best time as regards weather was a big priority, and it was decided that the fall of 2011 would be the best bet for putting a trip together. Australia is in the southern hemisphere, and so the seasons are the reverse of what we experience in the United States. Our fall is their spring and we timed it to hit cooler temperatures that would be warming while we were there. Jonathan's advice was critical here. We wanted several weeks to give it a good go and decided the entire month of September 2011 would work well. That gave us plenty of time to plan and make arrangements so we put it on our calendars.

To be continued....

steve-herschbach-with-australia-gold-nugget.jpg
Photo courtesy of Aurum Australis

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OK, travel to Australia and back. First step - get your passport if you do not have one. Other than that it is just jet travel, though halfway around the world. I found my old email from Chris with the flight we both ended up booking. Since we were headed for Western Australia around Meekatharra the flight destination is Perth, which requires flying across the entire continent of Australia from the initial touchdown in Melbourne. We would then drive out of Perth to the Meekatharra area.

Depart Wed 24 Aug. 2011 23:30 from Los Angeles Arrive 08:20 (Fri) Melbourne Qantas flight QF94  
Depart 10:45 (Fri) from Melbourne Arrive 13:00 (Fri) Perth Qantas flight QF475

Depart Wed 28 Sept. 2011 23:10 from Perth 05:20 Arrive (Thu) Brisbane Qantas flight QF652  
Depart 10:55 (Thu) from Brisbane Arrive 07:00 (Thu) Los Angeles Qantas flight QF15

Flights on  Sale Economy for  $1,432.38

The same flight booked just now five years later is $1340.33

quantas-to-australia-la-to-perth.jpg

Notice the nearly 24 hours spent in the air so longer than that with time in airports, etc. The nice part is on overseas flights even the cheapest seats are more like first class. Fifteen hours crammed in typical coach seating would probably lead to rioting in the aisles.

Travel was helped a great deal by JP providing nearly all the detecting gear including loaner GPX 5000 detectors. Except for a couple nights in Perth all our time in Australia was planned to be camping. I basically just took desert clothing and boots along with misc personal effects and picked up a small tent and sleeping bag in Australia, which came home with me. Chris packed a tent and bag, which I would do now if I had it to do over. Getting anything in Australia proved to be very expensive. It was not so much the exchange rate as the fact that an Australian dollar simply bought half in Australian stores what a U.S. dollar would get in U.S. stores. I tended to think of terms of a dollar being a dollar and that an even trade would be good. Nope, $100 Australian does not get you far at all in Australia. Look not just at the exchange rate but the actual cost of goods at your destination.

Chris was in Reno at that time while I was still living in Alaska. I had the extra flights from Alaska and met Chris in Los Angeles for the flight to Australia. Kudos to Quantas on everything - flights were nice, no issues.

steve-arrives-australia-on-quantas.jpg
Our flight arriving in Perth, Australia. Photo courtesy Jonathan Porter of Aurum Australis

australia-road-map.jpg

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Great timing on this thread Steve, as I've been toying with a "bucket list" trip to the land down under next summer! I know I could probably find more gold plugging away here in the west and southwest, but the adventure appeals to me! Looking forward to your continued posts! :-)

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Well worth the trip Peg! It surely is not all about the gold. The first time going anywhere is great just from the seeing new country perspective, and the Aussie people are simply tops in my book. And gold luck can strike anywhere - there are still huge nuggets lurking in Australia, you just need to put your coil over one.

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This thread fits in well with Freds post for anyone thinking to go to Australia as it would be good to have a good contact there or be on a tour such as the one Fred posted.  I can't imagine it being anything less than awesome than to travel to Australia and have a chance to find some gold at the same time.  

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Good to see you had a good trip downunder.

Next time you will have to do a stint with the Goldhounds crew Steve!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, in the first post I mentioned how I kept a journal on the trip with daily notes. I had intended for it to provide lots of tiny details about gold finds, etc for this thread. After starting the thread I realized I had no idea where the journal was and so started two weeks of looking through boxes shipped from Alaska to Reno and never opened. I found lots of stuff and have done some much needed cleanup work leftover from our move to Reno, but the notebook never did come to light. I am afraid that because it just looked like a nondescript notepad (picked up at last second in store in Oz) that it may have got thrown out when we were packing up to move from Alaska. Or I still have not found it. Whatever, the show must go on! I will do the best I can from memory.

There were a couple things everyone that goes to Australia looking to bring home gold needs to know. First, depending on where you go detecting you may need a permit or license. In Western Australia you need to obtain a Miner's Right. From the information page at http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/Minerals/Miners-Rights-2427.aspx

"A Miner’s Right must be obtained prior to commencing prospecting activities. This allows the holder of the Miner’s Right to pass and re-pass over land, in order to gain access to Crown land for prospecting purposes. A Miner’s Right can be obtained for a fee of $25 at the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP), Mineral House, 100 Plain Street, East Perth, or at any Mining Registrar’s office, upon presentation of proof of identity. An application form is available within the attached Miner’s Right pamphlet."

western-australia-miners-right-herschbach-front.jpg

These were obtained in advance for Chris and I. From http://www.australiasgoldenoutback.com/things-to-do-australian-outback/Outback_experiences/Gold_prospecting_and_fossicking

"This gives you authorisation to prospect on:

  • Unoccupied crown land that is not covered by a granted mining tenement.
  • A pastoral lease that is not covered by a granted mining tenement – provided prior notice is given to the pastoralist.
  • A mining tenement - providing you have permission from the tenement holder. 
  • A granted exploration licence, after having been granted a three-month section 20A permit.

It is important to note that gold prospecting and fossicking cannot be carried out in national parks, nature reserves, on Aboriginal land and heritage sites, within townsites or other classified areas such as cemeteries. You must seek permission from the landowner to enter private property, such as farmland."

seven-golden-rules-for-prospecting-australia.jpg

OK, you find some gold, now what about taking it home? I have never heard of anyone having trouble taking gold nuggets from Australia to the U.S. unless they are extremely valuable or historic in nature. Unless you are talking pounds of gold you just put it in your carry on and take home. Still, I tried to find some legal guidance and there is not much out there. This is from https://www.border.gov.au/Exportinggoods/Documents/111026volume12version5.2.pdf (pages 143 -145)

Class B Objects – Export Permit Required
Class B objects, include:

• Natural Science Objects of Australian origin as prescribed in Part 3 of the control
list:
- any palaeontological object;
- any mineral object (not otherwise referred to in this item) with a current
Australian market value of not less than AUD$10,000;
- any gold nugget with a current Australian market value of not less than
AUD$250,000;

- any diamond or sapphire with a current Australian market value of not less
than AUD$250,000;
- any opal with a current Australian market value of not less than AUD$100,000;
- any other gemstone with a current Australian market value of not less than
AUD$25,000;
- any meteorite; and
- any type specimen of present-day flora or fauna, a palaeontological object or a
mineral if:
- it is not lodged in an Australian collecting institution; or
- a permit or an authority issued under the Environment Protection and
Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is not in force.

Unless you have an extremely valuable find there appears to be nothing to worry about, but if anyone can add any clarification or details I would appreciate it. In any case, rules do change and anyone traveling to Australia will want to seek out the latest information.

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