geof_junk

The big advantage is they leave no 4WD tracks to your patch.

If your baggage goes missing find out when the next plane land from your departure airport. I landed in Chicago in the middle of winter from summer down under with the wife and 2 kids. All of our belongings for a ten week holiday went missing. The airline stalled and final admitted that they had not put on half the plane load of baggage on board, and it was on the next flight.

No one has mention taking a couple of days medication. The main concern of lost men in WA (when I was there) was that they had not taken their heart tablets.

I thought we were 10 years behind,,,be that good or bad.

Look at the price of gold during those years. A lot could be made buying and selling at the right time each year. More fun finding it, but I always convert detector price in gold. Gold...High and Lows....

Having the best detector is a good idea, but having one that you can use is more important till you get prospecting experience. Best of LUCK.

Here another spot John Mills was an Irishman from Londonderry. He was part of a prospecting party of six who had conducted a fruitless search in early 1894 for gold near Widgiemooltha. Virtually broke, they were prospecting as they made their way back to Coolgardie. Mills sat down under a tree to rest, depressed about his lack of fortune, when he idly pushed a rock aside with the heel of his boot. The underside was covered in gold. As the party explored the site, it was found the stone in the outcrop was hanging together with gold. This incredibly rich tiny deposit yielded 8000 ounces from dollying in a few weeks. One of the party became ill and returned to Coolgardie. Here he got wildly drunk and with a loose tongue, soon most of the town had heard about the find. The next day virtually the entire town arrived at the site, and leases were pegged in all directions. The prospecting party sold the lease to speculators, who sealed the hole with a metal plate. A company was formed in London and Paris, raising 750 000 pounds. It was a staggering amount, considering the most promising mines in Western Australia at the time could only raise about 50 000 pounds. In the period after, with the hole still sealed, it developed almost mythical status. Promoted as what would become no less than the biggest gold mine in the world. Eventually after several months, the company was ready to start mining, and the seal was broken with much pomp and ceremony. After a few days, it was revealed only a thin gold shell remained, and all the rock beyond this was barren. Hundreds of leases nearby were immediately abandoned, after thousands of pounds had been spent developing them. Investors of the Golden Hole lost in some cases their life savings, and went bankrupt. Recriminations flew. It was the first of many scandals on the Western Australian goldfields, because when it comes to greed, people have short memories. TOO LATE AGAIN...... Another write up....... The Londonderry Gold Mine. — ♦ A recent cable gram from Perth says that some of the specimens from the Londonderry mine, near Coolgardie, are so rich that one has to look closely to see the quartz. A correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald gives the following particulars regarding this mine : — The most wonderful find of gold ever made in the colony has been discovered nine miles south-west from Coolgardie. The mine ia marvellously rich in coarse, wiry gold, of a bright color, the metal being so thickly scattered through the stone that after the rock is fractured it has to be wrenched apart. The stone is close-grained. Every piece broken shows the faces of the fracture to consist of nearly one-third gold. Rumors of the find have been circulated for some time, but the locality was unknown till the last few days. The workings consist of a trench outcutting across a reef measuring 6ft long by 2ft wide and 3ft deep, and a shaft 40fc deep sunk away from the reef cutting. 4000 oz of gold were dollied in four or five weeks, while the specimens, measuring a foot square, are so heavy that one caunot lift them. One splendid block equal to a 9in cube in size, is so rich that Mr Elliott, one of the parry, paid his mates £2OOO for their share in it. The claim was discovered by a party of six tired and disheartened diggers returning from Lake Lefroy, who in prospecting along the route struck an outcrop showing pieces nearly Wwt each in quartz. The "holdeis of the lease are Messrs Elliott and Farmer, from Avoca, Victoria, and Messrs Mills, Huxley, Gardiner, Carter, and Dawson, who had offers of great sums made to them for the property. One offer was for £ 25,000 cash. The offers have been refused. The gold ia sight is estimated to be worth very much more than the sum mentioned. Later intelligence states that the owners, Messrs Mills, Gardiner, Carter and Dawson, are from New South Wales, and the others, Messrs Elliott and Huxley, from Victoria. They arrived at Coolgardie about the middle of March, and formed themselves into a prospecting party. They journeyed out to Lake Lefroy, where they got neither gold nor water. At the end of April they started away back. On the Bth May they arrived about 12 miles south-west of Coolgardie. There they pitched their camp, and on the following day they made the lucky discovery. He and others visited the mine last week, and he says the expert declared the specimens the most magnificent ever seen in the whole history of mining in Australia. They consist generally of large pieces of quartz. The biggest is known as Big Ben, purchased by Sir. Elliott, who had previous experience as a miner, for £2,000. Only the strongest men in the party, Messrs Begelhole, Pearce and Stockfield could lift it. It is estimated to weigh 300 lb. Mr Elliott, it is said, will make £1,000 on the bargain. Other pieces were smaller, running from the size of a man's head or a little larger, down to the size of half a brick, and contained from half an ounce to a hundred ounces. They had not got many of them, but what they got were marvelously rich. The amount of gold in the specimens was 4,700 0z per dwt, and then there was Big Ben. If it goes down 100 ft there must be a quarter of a million pounds' worth of gold in it. If it goes down no further than at present, they have £ 25.000 worth.

Not if you walk in a circle It happens...........As you say there is plenty of handrails if you know what bearing to take. I remember going looking for a mate lost in Maryborough .There was only moonlight. Found him heading down the track in the wrong direction, a few km further than where he started.

As you may see from my profile that bushwalking and kayak are some of my hobbies and have been for many years. The main thing is not to PANIC this is easy achieve by looking/studying the map of the area. I remember a mate (Tom) got lost. He put his GPS down while digging, and then walked off with out it. He searched for it for hours getting more lost as time passed. Finally he got on the CB/Radio and let us know his was geographically embarrassed. After finding that he had not crossed any 4WD tracks I was able to get him to put his shadow at 10 0'clock so that he would hit a hand rail (track). He let us know when he hit the track and was rescued. Handrails have not been mention here but are a major feature of a map. .......LINK 1....... .......LINK 2 ....... click on.... page 127 >> The other tip don't depend on others for navigating keep your eyes open. I still carry a GPS, PLB, Light. Lighter, batteries. and first aid and water.

All good advice......Shouting out EUREKA IS MORE EFFECTIVE. In getting help.

I hunt alone also, when the wife let me otherwise within 5km of her (radio contact). I like to go "walkabout"

They all add up, but some times it worth taking a break from the high concentration and chase some bigger ones.

Get a Garret DeepSeeker VLF detector and spend a season or three on the hottest ground you can find. If you have learnt how to ground balance, pinpoint and listen to all type of response you have got it made. If you don't enjoy the pain get a GP Minelab or better and spend a lot of time using it.

Good old bath in Acid is the way to go.

With this statement "I am sure there are a few new sunbakers sitting around here and there, but not many. I do agree that the best prospecting will come in the summer months when the water levels go down and some good gold will be found " If they printed that, all of us Ozzies prospectors will be over there to miss our winter months

Not of your nuggets but YOUR location be it Country or State. Seem to be missing on a lot of basic profiles. This if it was added by members (not that given away your privacy) would make POSTS more relevant. What is your view?

My wife and I have found over 60 gold rings on one holiday. A half sovereign on the gold fields, a sovereign on a old race track(now a farm paddock). A heap of silver and copper coins from old schools and churches as well as plenty of spending money in current coins. 19 Oz in a morning and pushed to over 26 Oz after lunch. A few good virgin patches exceeding a Kilo. My ULTIMATE GOAL is finding my next nugget.

The nugget is about 5 Oz

Those blisters/callus show that you have put the effort in. By the way are you left handed (south paw ) if not how many blisters/callus on the right hand.

Well you have done it now. The next Qantas flight is full of us Aussy Diggers.

I did this with Amalgamate, ate the spud and have been as mad as Hatter ever since.

Look at what can happen if the holes are not filled.I worked there from 1973 end of 1979 http://www.smh.com.au/world/billiondollar-mess-a-major-disaster-the-people-do-not-deserve-to-have-20160817-gquzli.html Before that, Panguna mine had accounted for about 45 per cent of exports from PNG and generated more than $1 billion in national tax revenue and dividend payments More than five million ­tonnes of copper and 19 million ounces of gold were left behind in the Panguna open-cut.

I learnt this years ago (1980) and all my virgin patches are still left alone some of them have exceeded a Kilo and have more ground to do. In WA I use the lightest chain for the area as I can get away with, and keep 4WD tracks away as well.

I used Butane-Gas-Blow-torch (Cheap Chinese fit on Butane can) on a boiler fire brick (Scooped out), the melt sizes was the limit for the heat. This is how I melted my specimen (Over 3.5 Kilos) Unfortunate is only turned into 17 Oz it exceeded my scales so the rest is next to my watch.

YOU FORGOT TO PUT GRIDDING CHAIN on mate ?