RKC

G'day,

Nth Queensland camps, cont

Camp on the banks of Roaring Meg Lake near China Camp.

Camp on Bairds Creek in the Daintree Rainforest.

Camp next to an unknown river in the rainforest.

Camp on Hilda Creek just off the CREB track, Nth Queensland.

Camp on Sandy Creek in the Palmer River catchment.

Camp at Georgetown Caravan Park ... as mentioned earlier. The guy in the red tent opposite my tent used to go out detecting every day on his motorbike and was getting much more gold than the other prospectors. So they started to follow him each day (unsuccessfully). 

One of my camps next to Mad Louies Hut  not far away from Gold Hill in the Daintree Rainforest. When I was camped there I did not know that Mad Louie had just come out of jail. He did six months in Townsville jail for shooting at some miners who had taken out a lease (Lost Ridge ML 100 https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/681x649q90/845/05ln.jpg ) on Gold Hill and were driving their equipment in. One of the guys who was shot at said they all jumped out of their trucks when the shots started and dived behind fallen logs. He said it was just like in a western movie with bullets flying close overhead. Louie was high on home-brew and dope at the time ... which might have been a good thing as he would not have been able to shoot straight. On the other hand, if he had not been high as a kite the shooting might never have occurred at all. There was a well populated hippy colony on Gold Hill before the miners arrived that were able to do virtually whatever they liked because it was so remote. And what they liked to do was to grow dope!

Camp on the Wenlock Goldfield (under Mango trees).

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

Nth Queensland camps.

This was my main camp at Ebagoola Goldfield. But it was a bad choice of ground to put a camp as I found that each night snakes would wake me hitting the tarp at the back of the camp trying to go through. It must have been a path snakes used each night, and I had blocked it. It got so bad one night I had to sleep in the back of my truck. Some managed to get under the tarp and I could hear them slithering under my bed. I had a raised bed just because of snakes. 

Ebagoola Goldfield

Dredging camp at Boonjie, Nth Queensland. This was officially the wettest place in Australia. When more scrub was cut down I could look out my back door and see the weather station at Topez which recorded the wettest rainfall in Australia most years. I was there for a long time while dredging in a creek ( http://imageshack.com/a/img845/7213/w26h.jpg )

just out the back door. I usually stayed there in winter, but one year I tried it during the Wet Season. It was better than I thought it would be, and it was quite an experience. I was out in the scrub one day when a mini cyclone came through and the only way I could keep my feet on the ground was to wrap my arms around a tree and hold on for the the few minutes it took to pass. When I got back to my camp (a camp of only a tent and a tarp) it was flattened (the expensive long distance radio I had was water damaged and useless). In those days the only entertainment I had was a radio (totally different today when I can take my tablet to a bush camp and watch movies). This (above) is where I moved to after being in a tent became impractical because of the frequent downpours.

Camp at Bourgamba, in the Daintree Rainforest. 

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Track into Bourgamba.

Dredging camp on the Mitchell River, Nth Queensland.

Same camp ... I am fairly sure this was a camp we were driven out of because of the hundreds of bats that would fill the trees in the late afternoon and make a hell of a racket.

Remote rainforest camp only accessable with the ARGO.

Same camp.

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Mining camp in the Palmer river catchment (early 1980s)

Rough camp.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

Some Cape York stamper batteries.

Battery Creek, Yarrenden, Cape York.

Smelter, Battery Creek.

Lucan Battery.

Lucan Battery.

Smelter, Lucan Battery, Lucan river, Cape York.

Lucan Star mine, Lucan River, Cape York, Nth Queensland.

Smelter, Lucan River, Cape York, Nth Queensland.

Old mine boiler, Wenlock River, Cape York, Nth Queensland.

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Abandoned Cape York stamper battery.

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Tailings in an abandoned Cape York gold field (1980s)

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Cape York goldfield.

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Mine tailings dump, Wenlock river goldfield, Cape York, Nth Queensland.

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Dredging for tin in a river near Bloomfield.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

Further to the post about digging around an old smelter for gold the old timers missed.

The smelter was next to this old stamper battery.

The dirt I dug had to be carted to the only water available (some distance away) and then I ran it through a sluice box.

The very crude sluice box I used.

This is the gold I got. I have no idea how much was there. I just threw it in with other gold and sent it off to the Perth Mint for smelting. I wish I had kept these pieces as they were unique. Some were shaped like a tear-drop, with other as round as a ball bearing. A couple of pieces looked like copper, with some others looking like silver. At the time, I got to thinking about how they might have formed in these shapes and it probably had something to do with when the miners were cooling the melted gold with water. Gold was spurting out landing in cold water where the tear-drop and other shapes were formed ... possibly?

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

Even Toyotas break down occasionally.

It was never fun when my Toyota would break down on Cape York in the 1980's. At least with those 1980's Toyotas it was possible for someone like me to patch them up enough so I could at least get to a nearby town for repairs by a mechanic. I doubt anyone could do running repairs on modern Toyotas like I could on my old Toyota back in the 1980's. 

When I broke down here I had to camp next to my vehicle until my mate came along in a few days time. 

Stuck in a gully on a Cape York goldfield.

Tin mine China Camp. 

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Tin mine China Camp.

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Tin mine China Camp ( Gold Hill can be seen in the distance).

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Tin mine China Camp (mid winter 1981). The owner of this mine used to let us dry our tin on his dryer.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

I found some more photos about the fire.

Where I am standing next to the truck must be about where I was when I was hit by the flames.

I'm not sure when this photo was taken. But ... it must have been just after the fire when we were still out in the bush. It looks like my face had not yet swollen up.

About to leave for home, and some R&R. The Americans dredge was packed into the little red  Daihatsu with another 5-inch dredge.

Crossing the Mitchell river on the way back to the coast.

Arriving at Mareeba for a stop before heading south to Miriwinni and a break. The American must have been able to get a loan of a tee shirt.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

On 1/30/2014 at 3:30 PM, Jack and dog said:

 

Did you get enough gold  ? &

how did you manage to post the photos , all I can send are small thumbprint size 

 

G'day Jack ,

I guess I  must have managed to get "enough" gold ...  the only alternative to no gold-getting is a real job. 

Back in those glory days of the 1980's I dredged in Summer down in the state of Victoria, and I then spent the winter months in the warmer climes of Far North Queensland. A number of other Australian dredgers did the same thing and we all got to know each other. Of all the small-scale mining opportunities open to the independent prospector back in the 1980's it was dredging for gold in Victoria that certainly payed the best. There were many more people out detecting for gold in Victoria during the 1980's ... but, the dredgers did much better than 95% of those detecting for gold. The professionals who dredged the Goulburn and Big rivers in the 1980's would get between 70 to 100 ounces a season. And, even the dole-bludgers who did little actual dredging would get at least 20 ounces for the season.

Here I am dredging Victoria's magnificent Big River in the 1980's with a 7-inch dredge.

Here I am with 10 ounces of fine alluvial gold I dredged from Big River. There was a lot of hard work involved in getting this 10 ounces after the season had finished, well into the cold winter months ... so I thought it worth taking a photo to remind me how hard gold is to get.

My first ever camp on Big river, Victoria.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

Site of an old smelter. I dug around the remains of the smelter and got some gold the old timers had lost when pouring a melt.

Typical gold country in Cape York. Probably unchanged today as long as a large mining company had not moved in and started moving dirt in bulk.

Another little grass fire.

Camp on the Roaring Meg river (these days a permit is required to enter this area).

A camp which was only accessable by Argo. This camp was built originally by geologists who flew in all the building materials by chopper. And when they finished in the area they left it for others to enjoy. It was fairly solidly built ... so it might still be standing.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

This (Main Creek) camp was only accessible by using the Argo and floating down a river.

Main Creek camp ( http://imageshack.com/a/img836/4981/5svt.jpg ).

North of Cooktown.

If I remember correctly the sign said something about no detecting. 

Camp next to Tunnel Creek, China Camp, Daintree Rainforest, Nth Queensland.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

Typical Cape York country with ant hills.

The Peninsula Development Road in the mid 1980's, that runs right up the center of Cape York. Its probably a four lane sealed highway these days so the gray nomads in the Winnebago's don't get dust in their giant flat screen TVs. And the road probably has a more PC name these days ... probably something indigenous.   

The Wenlock Goldfield. I took this photo as I was sure my mate was not going to get his Hilux up the same steep section of road I had just climbed with my Toyota. However ... he got the Hilux up with no problem at all.

A Palmer River gold mine in the early 1980's.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

Another camp. It looks like I'm camped under a Mango Tree, so, ... it might be Ebagoola Goldfield.

I have no idea where this is! It looks like I'm camped in a river bed somewhere (in North Queensland).

Rain-forest camp in North Queensland. I was camped here on private property. However, there was a paper-road where I was camped. I was told about the paper road before going in there and the general consensus was that I could get away with camping there. The landowner came down after I had been there only long enough to start setting up camp. The landowner confronted me by stating forcefully that it was private property and therefore I had to leave immediately! My response was to tell him I knew it was a paper road. And then when I informed him who told me it was a paper road he confessed  that he knew it was a paper road as he was friends with the person who had told me. When we got to talk further he told me he did some gold dredging in the area himself. To cut a long story short, I was allowed to stay. 

Camped under another Mango tree. When camped under a Mango tree at the right time of year, breakfast is picked up off the ground each morning. I'm trying to remember where this was and I'm fairly sure it was well up the Peninsular ... could be near the Starkey Goldfield. I do definitely remember that it was here that a small fire I had for boiling the billy got away from me and all the surrounding grass caught fire. The worst part was that a group of cattlemen working on the station that I was camped on saw the fire and came to investigate. They didn't seem too upset that some feed for their cattle was lost and accepted it was an accident. Oddly these fires would not burn for long even though everything was very dry, and these fires would never burn through the night.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

My dredging camp in the North Queensland rain-forest.

Mitchell river North Queensland.

Another of my North Queensland bush camps ( I can't remember what goldfield it was located on ).

Another camp in rain-forest.

Preparing the ground to be detected on a Cape York Peninsula goldfield.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

I found a photo of myself on that fateful day that I did not realize I had. 

The American is the one with the beard! I don't know why I am smiling ... I should have been angry at him for nearly scaring my face for life. This must have been just before I headed off to hospital and my face was just starting to swell up. My treatment at Mareeba hospital was the application of a lot of a cream to the burn area on my swelling face. After leaving the hospital I walked down the main street of Mareeba  and small kids would scream upon seeing my swollen face with cream all over it as I must have looked like the elephant man.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day Jack,

I'm not in any of the photos ... I was behind the camera taking the photos. The American passed away just recently in Hawaii, and myself, with the other guy in the photo, are still going strong chasing the yellow but in totally different countries. Both of us were chased out of Australia by the introduction of laws designed to end small scale mining.

The remote bush camp I have at present (in New Zealand) can't be driven to and is a tough one hour walk uphill from a road. And its magic to spend a few nights alone in the green hills of Godzone. My current camps are the exact opposite of the dry country of Nth Queensland where snakes would routinely come into the camps at night. The only wildlife that visits me in my NZ camps at night are fireflies that fly silently and eerily between the trees. 

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

During the 1980's Toyota Hiluxes became more popular as people found they could go anywhere a Landcruiser could. 

A friend of mine used this ex-army forward control Land Rover in North Queensland. This truck was also used to cart dredges around in New Zealand in the early 1990's ( https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/723x533q90/540/x8ssek.jpg )

We eventually used this Argo to get us places even a Toyota could not go.

A mining camp on Cape York Peninsula. 

Another of my remote North Queensland bush camps.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

Somewhere (can't remember where) in North Queensland.

North Queensland ... heading south along the CREB track from Bloomfield (at the first creek crossing after leaving Bloomfield). What was then called the Bloomfield river mission is now known as Wujal Wujal.

Camp at Astronomer Gold Mine, Boonjie, North Queensland.

(ML6625 https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/4000x3000q50/901/nB3vTu.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/978x653q90/537/crikOq.jpg )

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Main tailrace at the Astronomer Mine, Boonjie, North Queensland.

Camp somewhere on Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland (I have no recollection of this camp at all).

Grass fire on Cape York, North Queensland.

River bed camp on Mitchell river, North Queensland.

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About to cross the Mitchell river.

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A prospecting trench dug by a mining company with a bulldozer on the Wenlock Goldfield. I went over all of the exposed ground in this trench with a detector but got nothing (not even any junk).

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

A visiting American gold dredger bought a Toyota in Nth Queensland ... but he did not get as much use out of his as I did with mine!

As you can see it was destroyed by fire. The American dredger had an LPG fridge with an always-on  pilot light in the back under an enclosed canopy. Also under the canopy were 60 liter drums of fuel for his dredge. He had parked on a slight slope and fuel started leaking from an overfull drum. The fumes built up and the leak was ignited, somehow by the flames from the pilot light. We were all about 20 meters away from the truck when we first saw flames (small flames at first). The American and I ran over to the truck together to attempt to stop it spreading, but the American guy panicked and grabbed a 60 liter drum of fuel, and flames came straight out of the screw top of the drum like a flamethrower and I was hit on one side of my face by radiant heat. He was standing inches away from me but was not hit. We then retreated ... I headed straight into the river and dunked myself under the water to get some relief from the pain.

Once it took hold flames were shooting straight up 20 feet in the air, with drums and the truck tires exploding.

Everything on the truck was completely destroyed except for his gold which he had stowed under the drivers seat and which we managed to recover after it had cooled down. His dredge was in the river ... so that was something he did not lose. All he left there with was the dredge and the pair of shorts he had on (and his gold!). I headed straight to hospital (a good three or more hours drive) in pain all the way ... and only able to see out of one eye!. 

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

love the FJ45!!!

G'day deathray,

These FJ Toyota trucks were extremely common in Nth Queensland during the 1980's!  And they were used by just about everyone who ventured off the tar seal.

About to head up the Peninsular Development road from Malanda, NTH Queensland.

Even Toyotas get stuck in the mud occasionally. I had to wait most of the day before another Toyota came by and towed me out.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day Steve,

I could not locate the booklet about the finding of the Hand of Faith by Kevin Hillier. Anyway I think its now been reasonably established what detector model The Hand was found with. After thinking about it while looking for the booklet, I am fairly sure that at the time the Hand of Faith was found in 1980, the Groundhog was not yet being sold in Australia. In 1980 the Garrett Deepseeker must have been the most commonly used detector by the serious electronic prospectors in Victoria. It was certainly the most expensive detector and thus the top of the range ... like the latest Minelab PIs are today. It was however a detector I never managed to master as it was extremely noisy in Australian soil. I used mine in the Nth Queensland goldfields of Georgetown and Ebagoola where there was quite a few other electronic prospectors at the same time using this model of Garrett detector. A couple of the other prospectors tried to school me in getting the best out of it, but I could not persist long enough. I was too young and impatient in those days to learn how to pick the noise of a good target out from all the ground noise. I sold it to another prospector in Ebagoola who had more patience than me and who had successfully used one before. He told me it was by far the best detector available ... but I was just happy to get rid of the noisy beast of a machine, and he got a bargain.

I got to thinking about Garrett detectors yesterday while looking for the booklet, and I was reminded about the famous story of how the Garrett Groundhog became popular on the Australian goldfields in the 1980s. There were a lot of guys detecting back then who had their wives with them in the bush, and many of the wives wanted a detector for themselves. Because the Deepseeker was so expensive, the husbands were reluctant to spend so much money on a detector that they thought would probably get little use. So a number bought their wives a Garret model which was the cheapest of the then Garrett range ... and that was the Groundhog. What they then found was that the wives were getting more gold than they were! Then the Deepseekers were put aside and the Groundhog became the detector of choice for a time. I was told at the time it was something to do with different frequencies of the two detectors, with the frequencies of the Groundhog better suited to the ground in Australia. But - maybe - it could have been because the Groundhog ran quieter. Then when Garrett started selling so many Groundhogs in Australia they rebadged the Groundhog and sold it as a detector specifically made for Australian conditions. I think it was called something like the A2B.

I had even less success with the detector I had prior to the Deepseeker, which was my first ever detector. In the late 1970s there was a guy based in Newcastle who imported Compass detectors and he was all over the media promoting them as the detector driving the then gold rush. So, as I knew nothing about detectors, I believed the hype and bought a Compass detector from a mining supply shop in Sydney (where I was then living). But, rather than starting off cautiously in a new field of endeavour and trying detecting in a gold field close to home, I decided to go all in. I bought a Toyota Land Cruiser and headed to the Queensland goldfields with my brand new shiny Compass detector. I drove straight through for two days from Sydney to the Nth Queensland goldfield of Georgetown. And on getting to Georgetown I headed to the caravan park. Then, the very first person I spoke to when I got out of my Landcruiser said straight away ... "That detector is useless here!" And I soon found out he was right. I was the only one there with a Compass detector, which I was ridiculed for. Everyone else was using Garrett's and it was galling to see them leave the caravan park each morning and come back in the evening with smiles on their faces. It must have been a bit later when I bought the Deepseeker. And when I bought the Deepseeker I thought I could not go wrong this time as it was the top of the line detector that everyone else was using, and I must have made a good buy.

Luckily I found that there were other means of gold getting to do in Nth Queensland other than using a detector. And a bit later I got into tin mining with a dredge, which I was successful at until the tin price crashed virtually overnight.

Regards,
Rob (RKC)

.



Detecting in Georgetown, North Queensland, in the mid 1980's.



My Garrett Deepseeker MD in Nth Queensland ( I also had a much bigger coil!).



My mining camp at Ebagoola goldfield.



Another of my mining camps at Ebagoola.



A woman friend detecting with a Garrett MD on the Georgetown goldfield in the mid 1980's.



Abandoned miners hut, Ebagoola, North Queensland.

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Ebagoola, North Queensland

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Georgetown goldfield.

As far as I know the largest nugget ever found with a metal detector was the Hand of Faith, at 875 ounces of relatively solid gold. With a Garrett Groundhog in 1980.

G'day,

Thanks ... very helpful!

But ... now I feel a little stupid. The mention above of the DetectorPro headphones reminded me that I actually have a DectectorPro Uniprobe. I bought one of those headphone detectors years ago and I must have ordered the probe at the same time. I havent seen it for years, so, if I can find it, I'll try it out in the next few days. Might save me getting one of the other brands. 

I bought one of the Silverdog SurfPI boards about a year ago but have not got around to soldering it up into a working detector just yet. If I can find time to put it togeather it might be worth trying with a probe. 

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

G'day,

I need to buy a pinpointer ... its a toss up between the Minelab Pro-find and the Garrett pinpointer. My uneducated guess right off the top of my head is that they would have the same performance.  Any advice on any possible advantages of one over the other? The advertising for the Minelab pinpointer says that it is a VLF. Is the Garrett also a VLF? Are there any PI pinpointers sold, by anyone?

Regards,

Rob (RKC) 

G'day,
 
Has anyone here used the new Garrett ATX in areas of thick vegetation? What I need to know is ... will the coil sound off when hitting rocks or trees, or grass. In particular, can it be used without the distraction of added blanking noise while being run through wet grass?
 
Reading the specifications of the new ATX it seems as if it was designed as a dream machine specifically for New Zealand (where I am located). And, as such ... seems too good to be true.
 
The only deal-killer might be if it can't be used in thick wet vegetation! Oh ... theres also the other possible deal-killer, the price in New Zealand. I noticed on one forum that an Australian poster stated that the price he was quoted for an ATX was over $1,000.00 dearer than the USA. I would not be at all surprised if the retail price in New Zealand was the most expensive in the world. The legit Garrett dealer in New Zealand has no mention of the ATX on its web site so far ... and something else for Kiwis to consider is that we will probably be the last country in the world to get a first shipment. 
 

 
Historical photo from about 10 years ago when detecting for gold started to get serious on NZs West Coast after some spectacular gold finds were made with a metal detector (Minelab PI MD) that haven't been surpassed since.
 

 
Typical West Coast gold country!
 
Regards,
Rob (RKC)