Does Anyone Know This Man?

[Erik Oostra]

[geof_junk]

Nearly posted the photo too.

Back in 1980 at Beggary Hills Wedderburn in the Golden Triangle  a piece that weighed 84 ozs. was found by three boy had found it using an early Whites detector.

Just after this was announced there was a rush there by everyone and their dog. The Wife, Me, and her brother went to have a look. I saw an old guy and his wife digging a hole about two feet deep. I asked if he would let me see how my detector responded to his target. I got nothing so he got back in the hole and his wife gave him he detector and said listen to this. I woke up straight away that he was getting his steel cap boots. He was not convinced till I told him to get out and let his wife have a go with her shoes.

He was a bit upset as that ground was very hard to dig and he had been digging for over an hour. 

.....about the nugget.....  

[Valens Legacy]

Looks like one of my neighbors, and sort of acts like him.

Since I am still a newbie at this I won't call the guy an idiot as I have almost made the same mistake. I forgot that a pair of tennis shoes I have does have steel toes in them and the detector hit on them a few times.

 

[Reg Wilson]

A mate and I were detecting Beggary hill when the boys found this slug down by the fence where there were a lot of old tins. It was just off a surfaced area.

The kid that found it was Adam Turner (not Yerner as printed in the paper). His dad was a friend with whom I drank 'moonshine' rum at Wedderburn. Luke Turner had a prospecting shop in Wedderburn and had loaned a detector to the kids for a school project on gold prospecting.

I dropped in one night with a large bottle of Coke for a rum sip when Luke said to me "I've something to show you". He unwrapped the slug from a pillow case. It weighed about 85ozs with a bit of ironstone in it. A nice lump.

Problems arose when the parents of the two other kids got greedy and involved lawyers because it seemed that they did not trust Luke to sell the nugget, which was stupid because Luke had the contacts to get an above spot price for the nugget. Gold brings out the worst in some people.

The end result was a forced sale where the best price was not obtained and the lawyers ended up with most of the money.

[Joe D.]

   Great bit of backstory Reg! Thanks!!👌

   Is it me, or does it look like the "kid" on the right may have become an "Andre the Giant" sized adult! Or is the photo's perspective just wonky!!??😂👍👍

[karelian]

I remember reading about it when the kids found the nugget. Also remember that the Skylab bits and pieces in Western Australia started the electronic gold rush for many of us. Just reminds me I'm getting old. When I read about large gold finds I tend to research the area and look at the type of ground it was found in, helps me focus on the geology and improve my odds of finding the yellow. People have learnt to keep the location of the finds to themselves these days, who can blame them?

[flakmagnet]

(oh god…)