I did a tag-along WA tour with John Dyer back in the early 1990's, so long ago that it was before pulse induction detectors were a thing and the Minelab XT17000 was the machine to have! Kick-off was at the Leonora caravan park and during the following week and a half, John led us through the Leonora/Laverton area, as far north as Leinster and eastward to Lake Darlot. He'd arrived a couple of weeks before the tour and pre-driven all of the tracks himself to ensure that everywhere we went was accessible, pastoralists knew we'd be around and permissions were in place with lease-holders. There were about a dozen of us, prospectors and a few non-prospecting partners, which meant there was always somebody watching over the carefully chosen campsites, in sheltered areas away from roads and main tracks.
Generally we'd go to a couple of locations each day and with so many detectors on the ground, finds came quickly - if nobody had any luck within an hour or so, we'd generally move on to somewhere more productive. John asked that the first gold finder in a new area blow a whistle and/or shout and wave their arms, so that others would be aware of it and as many as possible could have an opportunity to also make a find, without interfering unduly with the immediate area of the first lucky prospector. Some areas produced numerous nuggets, others only one or two and the duration of our stay was varied accordingly. A couple of times, John also took us to virgin areas where he wasn't aware of any gold finds but thought the terrain or geology looked promising, only one of which produced a nugget, unfortunately.
John was then and probably still is, a staunch Seventh Day Adventist, so on his part there was no drinking, no smoking, no bad language and the Saturday sabbath was strictly observed. He didn't impose his personal beliefs on the rest of us and had arranged the tour such that Saturday was at the mid-point, when we were back close to Leonora and the rest of us had the opportunity to go into town and replenish supplies, etc.
From memory, most if not all active participants on the tour found gold, with several of us getting multiple ounces (I think I had about 3oz and a couple of others got more). I rated it a highly successful expedition and learnt a lot from working alongside some accomplished operators and seeing firsthand the range of WA terrains capable of producing gold - even places where I wouldn't have stopped the car, much less unpacked a detector! It was certainly a long while ago, but from my personal experience of the man, John Dyer was a reliable, honest tour guide who facilitated a very successful trip for the participants. A young bloke on the tour wrote a good article about it for "Gold Gem & Treasure" magazine a few months later - somebody with an archive of early '90's back copies might be able to find that and post it here.
