geof_junk

It is good to see some recent gold that I don't have to put my glasses on to see. I hope you realizes that after the rest of the crew sees those bits it will be crowded out there on the gold fields.🤑 

A lot of historical sites have been ruin by illegal machinery operations ( and some legal ones too), that make the chicken scratching's made by all the manual detector operators as hardly detectible.    

The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria' by James Flett has many unknown location not found in most reference. I have not read his work since 1980 but it was enjoyable way of finding the spread of gold finds in Victoria.

I see the bible of Victorian Gold History in the above photos

17 hours ago, Lanny said:

I'm always amazed how gold never gets a sunburn from being exposed for all of that time on the surface.🤣

Lanny some hide in the shade like this one ounce nugget with the moss on it. 

JP back in the mid 1980 My brother in-law, wife and yours truely had a trip to your area. A storm hit us very hard at the time, the tents were nearly blown away. We had permission to hunt on a private claim at the time. No luck for my bother in-law or myself, but Carol (my wife) still won't let us forget that she was the only one that scored gold on that very short trip. Gold is were you find it but 100 yards from a large roundabout in the town section of Clermont showed me you can find gold anywhere someone has not detected. I am not sure but either your gold shop or the Claim owner had a army Name like Sargent or Major.

The high light of the trip for me was that I came across a working Alluvial  Mine, the owner allowed me to go down to the working face. I think it was 90 foot deep and one of the owner was down there with a pick digging out some white pipe clay in a very cramped space. This was winched out in a 44 gallon drum at the entrance shaft that was about 4ft wide and 90 ft deep   

1 hour ago, Valens Legacy said:

What size is the diamond if you don't mind saying.

For that type of diamond I have seen them priced at over $2,500 just for the diamond over 1/2 carat.

Remember that your first offer is just a base price to not go below.

Fifty years ago a 1/4 diamond was big in its day. Finding modern ring puts your chance up for finding a larger diamond but size does not mean as much as quality and cut.

....LINK....  for diamond quality

Karelian back in 1979-8o there were no gold maps available in Victoria except those that you had to research your self in Melbourne (100 miles/160 Km away) and no Google Earth either we had to get Aerial Photos to see the area (to pick out the surface patches). GPS systems came available to the public about 1983/4  I got my first GPS in 1990 it was slow poor reception in the bush but they got better and about 2000 they got rid of the 100 yard degrading of the signal. By 2003 I had time to download every state of Aust. and was able to filter their records for historical Gold Mines. I kept these to myself till 2010 and made them available to members on a gold forum for free. Some opportunist copied them and tried to sell them $50 a state on other forums but other member directed them to my free post. I set the data up, so it could be used with google earth and most map programs and GPS. Using Google Earth you can get views like yours above of all Historical Gold Mines in each state that the Mine department made available.

If you are interest in these historical location try this link.

.....LINK.....

You might find this link worth reading and what you are up against. Some good history and photos in the article.

.....LINK.....

6 hours ago, Lunk said:

But that's only half of the fun, because searching the virgin ground surrounding these old workings can yield more and larger nuggets, and maybe even an undiscovered nugget patch.

The big thing is that they did some hard work there believing or knowing that gold was in the area. In the desert area that I like, I have found it has been a good aid for finding undetected patches within a mile or so of these dry blower heaps.

Why only take 2 detectors for backup.😉

Garrett Deepseeker ADS It gave me my best day, detecting gold 19oz in the morning and 7.5oz after lunch when I took my Wife out to the spot. The largest nugget was 7.5 oz found first in the morning. On the jewellery and coins side learnt how to discriminate and found 100+ gold rings during its life time. It was very hard for most people to get the hang of it back in those days but I had to, just to keep up with the wife tally.

The runner up detector was the 2 Minelab GP 3000 that I bought when I retired back in 2003. It found heaps more gold than the Garrets as I was able to spend more time detecting and was able to live for 4 or 5 months a year in West Australia gold fields. 

I take 2 PI The wife carries and uses one and I the other. As for backup if mine breaks down she has to give me hers😁  if hers breaks down she has to REST till its starts to get dark and we return back to camp. This works out OK for me as I only have to carry ONE detector.🤪 

3 minutes ago, phrunt said:

I wish I was around for all this stuff, I missed out on the glory days.

Then you would not left any gold for me.   JR the Whites 6100 GoldMaster was great to see again that was the first Detector I bought for me. The Garrett ADS was my hand me down from the wife that I got for her new. She hated it and I had to get her a Whites 6000 but it got me away from dredging into detecting . Gerry those early top line detector cost less than a good coil these day.  

I thought the Garretts 1979 model Deepseeker ADS 7.5" coil was a DD coil that was used to pinpoint our targets. Found this link from 1982 but they don't mention DD coils. Good read for how it was back then with the advertising.😀       

            ...........LINK 1982...........

There is a few amazing shapes JP, in those photos.

On 11/25/2020 at 2:15 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

They make oil less piston diving compressors for deeper diving. Teflon rings, etc.

https://www.keeneeng.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=263

 

More Hookah Systems

To be fair this unit is only 8gm or 1/4 of an ounce of gold. If it is worth diving then equipment is cheap compared to your health.

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

Them were the good old days 🙂 No wonder there is hardly any gold left for me to find, the earlier electronic prospectors cleaned everywhere out of everything but the crumbs.

The crumb are more plentiful but you have to waste time digging them. Shotgun's pellets sound very close to crumbs and you have to get hundreds of crumbs to make an ounce, but their big brother could be hiding close by. 😀Don't leave big brother lonely by himself.😪

2006 Vic-Nuggets.xls.doc

10 hours ago, Joe D. said:

    Now that's a classic picture! How time flies! It's great that you all quit the cancer sticks! You have saved more money not buying them, than you got for the gold; many times over! And your still here to laugh about it!👍👍

Joe I gave up when the hit $3 a pack of 50 now they are close to $50 but I know that gold finds are well in front of saved money unless you include cancer surgery that we might have had if we did not Quit. 🤑 but then only the good die young 😀 

2 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

What's up with the orientation of that photo?  Are you trying to make the members here from the bottom side of the world feel more comfortable?

Or do you mean that sometimes a good day is completely turn upside down. 😁

Gerry on one trip to Queensland Aus. for a few weeks I found over fifty heavy gold rings most were 18 ct. Since my brother in-law had got 300+ rings before I got there I had to detect up to my waist in the saltwater. used my Garretts DeepSeeker as the 7" coil heavier and less buoyant than the larger 8" Whites coil and prevent the wife from using her Whites 6000 Coinmaster. I just remember that it was over a Easter Holiday period so had the advantage of the king tides as easter is based on the moon "Easter is traditionally celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after 21 March (an approximation of the March equinox)"

7 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

You both look young and fit.  I hope you can still mount your control box around your waste and see the meter and controls.  (And I'm not referring to the acuity of your vision, either.  😉) 

The belt needs to be adjust to max but at least I got something to rest the detector on if I pull that one out of retirement😉

Simon, It was the first Goldmaster an Australian model (Not coinmaster eg 5000,6000) I think Jimmy “Sierra” had a cutdown version of it. Here is a photo of it that was taken 33+ years ago and the wife has a Whites 6000 Coinmater. 

I just noticed that we were both smoking back then but gave it up 30 years ago. The ear phones were top class that I put in a home made frame and the moving coil ear phones in a plastic holder.

While trying to keen up my record before I upgrade my computer, found this old receipt of refined gold (Panned Gold) that I cashed in to get a new Whites VLF detector. There was a bit short of 3 oz I am happy that I did not cash in any nuggets back then. The purity was as close as you can get to 92% when cleaned 91 grams but AUD $16.12 a gram was good but now it is AUD $82.36 but the price of a top detector has risen high than the gold price.

PJ Williams Precious Metals.pdf