Australia - Prospecting In The 1980's

[Guest Paul (Ca)]

Thanks RKC,

 

Appreciate you sharing a part of your adventures with us,  Very exciting learned allot reading your thread.

 

Thanks again,

Paul (Ca)

[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)

[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)

[Steve Herschbach]

You can store as many photos on this forum as you please. When you post hit "more reply options" and attach the photos.

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[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. 

 

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/712x520q50/829/7ku0.jpg

 

Tin mine China Camp.

 

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/716x508q50/843/twvi6.jpg

 

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

 

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/712x520q50/853/1nkl.jpg

 

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)

[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)

[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.

 

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1769x1181q50/69/05qy.jpg

 

Abandoned Cape York stamper battery.

 

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/575x379q90/833/atr0.jpg

 

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

 

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/544x379q90/89/xdsf.jpg

 

Cape York goldfield.

 

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/548x379q90/819/1u5e.jpg

 

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

 

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1840x1301q50/844/9izz.jpg

 

Dredging for tin in a river near Bloomfield.

 

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

[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. 

 

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/396x576q50/837/wvbh.jpg

 

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.

 

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/504x344q50/823/1tieg.jpg

 

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

Rough camp.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

[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)