Erik Oostra

Thanks a lot for this AussieMatt.. The map I've shown is still used by Google and is on most tourist brochures.. even though my map showed old gold diggings outside of National Park borders, most of them are in some other sort of protected area.. for example 'The Dot' is within the Bolger Bay Conservation Area and the unnamed mine on the beach (bottom right on the map) is within a Marine Park.. Whilst the most obvious old digging outside National Park borders is in Horseshoe Bay, it is in the middle of a Skate Board Park (I'm joking).. 😁.. All this means there's very little wriggle room for prospecting on the island.. Good advice Valence Legacy! Some of the creeks from the old diggings flow into people's backyards or onto public beaches.. I've thought about beach panning/sluicing but am unsure about what can of worms I'd be opening in regards to regulations.. It's probably a hanging offence here in North Queensland (I'm joking).. 😁..

I thought I'd take a closer look at which of Magnetic Island's old gold diggings are within the borders of the National Park.. The first image is a map of the island showing the National Park borders.. the second image is a Google Earth map showing the locations of the old gold diggings..

Steve, I took the warnings very seriously and I haven't been up in the hills since then.. I tried to explain that I'd gotten carried away with the geology and history of the old gold diggings without thinking about where they were located.. I know that this is no excuse and that I only have myself to blame for sharing my findings in public.. Nonetheless, it was a huge shock to get a knock on the door from the Department of Land and Environment officers two months later.. I did not think about that it could have been 'greenies' monitoring this forum to cause grief, I jumped to the wrong conclusion as the officers showed me the print outs of my posts as evidence against me.. It's not my intention to make this out to be about forum members turning me in, I know it's all my fault for doing the wrong thing.. Now I'll have to face the consequences of my actions (as do my ranger friends)..

Spot on G4G! As i've mentioned to other members of this forum i got too carried away with the geology and history of that old gold digging and didn't think about anything else.. I practically live in a national park (most of the island is national park) and i guess i took it all too much for granted.. I know none of this is any excuse but on that occasion i really didn't think about the national park angle when searching for the yellow stuff.. more fool me! i'm just a bit disappointed that someone chose to go about it this way rather than having a chat to me about it first.. they've also landed my ranger mates in a world of shit.. just hope they're happy with achieving what they set out to do.. it's not my way, but whatever floats their boat..

I just received a visit to my house from 2 officers from the Department of Land and Environment.. they were investigating reports of me having a looksee at some of the old gold diggings.. they used my posts on this forum to prove that i'd been up there and wanted to know the names of rangers who had turned a blind eye.. i refused to tell them and took the blame on myself.. it's not so much that the rangers turned a blind eye, it's more a case of them having a laugh at my inability to find any gold.. the officers told me they were on the island today to continue their investigation so no doubt they'll be talking to the rangers as well.. it seems my little looksee has opened a huge can of worms! i just hope they won't press any charges and it doesn't end up in court.. I do wonder who on this forum decided to take it upon themselves to lag me in and to take the matter further.. they could at least have contacted me first to find out the real story.. like i said in my previous post i don't normally detect in national parks except on this occasion where a large quartz reef caught my interest.. i certainly did not destroy, take anything or disturb the site in any way.. i love the bush too much for that sort of caper.. the rangers also know this.. So i guess this has turned out into a bit of a warning to all.. don't detect in national parks! and be warry of those anonymous people who go out of their way to make sure offenders are punished!

To find silver coins on the island's beaches i've been using an Equinox 600 or 800 with a 15'' coil.. I've also given the GPX 5000 a few runs at my favourite spots.. Set in the special 'salt' setting and using a 15'' double-D coil the GPX has so far found a silver florin and a shilling.. But the jury is not still out on this one, the Equinox is definitely much better at sniffing out deep silver on my local beaches (in both 'multi-frequency' and lower single frequency settings)..

Does it have a metal detector attached to it? Or maybe it comes with a free GPZ? This looks like dodgy advertising to me.. like the telemarketers who keep calling me..

If i spot a colourful piece of sea glass when out detecting, i always stick it in my pocket.. last year i made a fish out of pieces of sea glass.. I'm very lucky living on an island, i've also collected loads of big shells (including nautilus) and driftwood (usually gnarly old mangrove roots)..

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-29/water-diviner-bob-biggs-says-he-can-divine-for-gold/13084288

Thanks a lot fellas for pointing this out.. I'll look more closely into this straight away! I guess I've been living in a bit of a bubble on the island where the rangers (and greenies) are more human than on the mainland.. As I said, they know what I'm all about and no one has ever raised the issue or laid down the law.. This is not to say that I 'poach' in other national parks in the state.. I'm usually a good boy 😁.. I'll be talking to the ranger boss on Monday to see if a compromise can be reached.. If not, too bad.. I guess I'll have to skirt around the outside instead..

I should be alright.. I went to school with one of the rangers and my son went to school with another one.. we're all good mates.. they're not even turning a blind eye, rather they're waiting for me to hurry up and find some gold..

I'm poaching!

Good man! I'll finally have a partner in crime..

I didn't record the direction but the gps waypoint for this unnamed digging put me straight on top of it.. The quartz reef runs along a ridge with a shallow gully on either side of it.. I've detected along the 'spine' of it and up and down the gullies.. so far I've just detected around the old digging, the reef goes along much further (could this be a fault line?).. I'll be heading back up there with a mono coil and also the equinox for along the bedrock in the creeks.. I'll also record the direction it runs..

according to old geo reports the reef is a few metres deep in some places.. i wish i'd taken a picture in the gully where it made up the bank of a small creek.. it's much wider in some places too, the video shows a narrower stretch after I just found it.. last few times there's always been tons of leave litter, but we had a little bushfire up there about 6 months ago which cleared it up nicely 😁

These videos and pictures were taken this morning at an unnamed gold digging at the western side of Horseshoe Bay.. the diggings are in the saddle of the two hills in the first picture.. the first video is of the quartz reef in which gold has been found, it runs for over a hundred metres and once you've worked out its direction it's easier to follow.. I've never found it the other times i've been up here, but this morning I followed it down the ridge into a gully where it became really obvious again.. the next video shows where prospectors at the end of the 1880s to the early 1900s sank shallow shafts into the reef, they where usually a few metres deep but it's hard to spot where they are these days.. the last pictures show some of the quartz crystals found along the creek on the way up to the diggings.. didn't find any gold today but I didn't really expect to, and there wasn't enough water in the creeks to sluice for specks..

Thanks geoff-lunk, that's another good suggestion.. the only thing is the cigarette plug has stopped working since i flooded my 4WD.. can i cut off the plug of the ML car charger and connect the cables directly to whatever cables go into the cigarette plug? or would i get a shock every time i hooked it up?

Thanks for putting up with my ignorance of elec-trickery, you've explained it really well.. It's slowly making sense.. it's becoming a bit of a daisy chain: solar panel--solar controller--battery--inverter--GPX 5000.. 😁

Thanks a million GotAU and davsgold.. to save me from having to buy a battery, could I cut the plug of a 12v inverter (like the one pictured below) and hook it into the solar charge controller? in the 'output' connection (which has the light-bulb symbol).. the other 'output' connection is to charge a battery.. Or an even wilder idea, could I hook the inverter straight onto the solar panel?.. it's output is also 12v..

Thanks again Dogodog! I've just found a solar controller with usb ports which also charges lithium batteries, so that'll also save me from butchering the Equinox cable.. I'll hook it up to my 25W panel.. It was only AU$16.. and the panel AU$30.. so a cheap way to go, if it works!

Thanks a million for your help here Dogodog! I haven't got a clue as far as elec-trickery is concerned.. Just saying for a moment it does really work, could I also cut an Equinox charging cable (on the usb end) and plug this into the control box? The equinox also has lithium batteries and it would be great if I could also charge it using solar..

G'day Prunt.. as you know i'm also a newby on the GPX 5000.. I bought a heavily used one last month and it came with a whole load of extras (most of which didn't work - including neither of the head phones and only 1 out of the 3 loudspeakers).. But me getting ripped off again is not what sparked my query.. What I would like to know is there anyway to test an old GPX to see if it's in good working order without taking it to a dealer? All the 4 coils my detector came with seem to be working alright, even after I re-wrapped them with electrical tape to cover the worn out lengths where the internal wires were poking through)..

I've ordered the solar charging kit in the picture below.. I bought it because it claims to be able to charge lithium batteries, all the others I looked at said 'only for lead batteries'.. I'm no great expert on these things (you could say absolutely clueless) but I'm thinking about cutting the cord on the car charger and plugging it into the control box.. I've got another 25W panel without a control box but I'm a bit worried what might happen if I hook this straight onto the GPX battery.. I don't want to kill the bloody thing.. My question is will a 20W panel hooked onto a control box charge my GPX 5000 battery without blowing it up? Thank you very much for any advice on this one.. I plan to prospect areas well away from the power grid and the 12V charging plug in my old 4WD has stopped working since the car got flooded during a river crossing.. If this solar charger does work it'll be a huge bonus for people prospecting in areas far away from civilisation.. Maybe it'll be the game-changer we've all been waiting for 😁.. I do realise this idea has probably been thought of a million times already, it's just that i can't find any related info on the net..

I think it's a rough scaled snake.. no. 22 on the deadliest snake list.. I've also come across the Taipan which is no. 1 on the list.. I also hate snakes, they never fail to scare the crap out of me.. still, up here in the tropics they're all part of the game.. prospecting would be boring without them 😬.. i'm glad i've got a coil swinging in front of me, in the hope that they'll bite it first.. i really hate the death adder, which is extremely well camouflaged and won't budge until you step on it.. my main fear is getting bitten in country far away from help.. i always detect alone being the only prospector on the island.. despite the heat i normally wear jeans and gaiters just in case!

not much luck this morning, only made it as far as unnamed mine no. 827808.. this site is up from 'The Butler'.. I got stopped by the heat and humidity as well as another snake.. am ashamed to say that after i shot a quick video i ran for it.. I swear it was chasing me! will have another go at those hills early tomorrow morning when it's a bit cooler.. I'll also be wearing jeans, gaiters and boots instead of shorts and flip-flops.. The video is of the snake, the first picture is the sort of country i'm searching in and the second picture is at the unnamed mine site..