You been having any luck out there Matt , I am in mackay too mate
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G
Guest
Can anyone tell me if the access to any GPA's around Clermont is suitable for a regular sedan rather than 4 wheel drive?
Much appreciated.
Much appreciated.
G
Guest
Thanks for that Straya, will give him a call. Did you do any good there?
Ship of fools
Mat. T
Most of time 2wd will be fine, you have to be prepared to to a fair bit of walking with a detector anyway.
I havent heard how much rain they have had from these storms rolling through CQ, that will change the situation.
Matt T
I havent heard how much rain they have had from these storms rolling through CQ, that will change the situation.
Matt T
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Hi Greenriver,
Just got home from our second trip to Clermont in the past month, we go there regularly during the winter months.
2WD or 4WD is not really the issue at Clermont GPAs when it is dry and this year has it been really dry out there. The issue is ground clearance. We drive a 2WD Isuzu D-Max ute and have found some of the forests have badly constructed whoabouys in them. Whoabouys are also called whopped-de-dos by some people, they are the mounded earth structures placed across the roads to divert water off the road and into a side gutter. They stop water from flowing down the middle of the road way and thus gouging out the road surface.
Most GPAs at Clermont are within State Forests which are actively managed and harvested for timber thus the roads are kept to a fairly high standard for harvesting vehicle access. To protect the roads from torrential tropical downpours they build a lot of these whoabouys. Most are crossable by a careful slow approach. Some however are too steep and we have actually gotten stuck on top of one of them last year. About 3 hours later with much digging, jacking and rock depositing we managed to back off it again.
This winter has been exceptionally dry and last week we encountered large pockets of bulldust that were not there at the beginning of the season. That bulldust will form mud holes which you will not get through with a 2WD after significant rainfall. We had a few storms circling last week, but no rain. I think it has rained out there in the past few days since we left though.
Don't try to drive into Bathampton or McMasters if it has rained as you will get stuck. There are plenty of places you can access Bathampton, 4 Mile and Birimgan by just parking beside the bitumen on Laglan Road and walking in from there. The left hand side of McDonalds Flat is likely to be accessible after rain, but less so the right hand side.
Good luck, we find gold there each time we go, but it is often small and as Ship of Fools says you will have to walk to find it.
Cheers,
Troutman
Just got home from our second trip to Clermont in the past month, we go there regularly during the winter months.
2WD or 4WD is not really the issue at Clermont GPAs when it is dry and this year has it been really dry out there. The issue is ground clearance. We drive a 2WD Isuzu D-Max ute and have found some of the forests have badly constructed whoabouys in them. Whoabouys are also called whopped-de-dos by some people, they are the mounded earth structures placed across the roads to divert water off the road and into a side gutter. They stop water from flowing down the middle of the road way and thus gouging out the road surface.
Most GPAs at Clermont are within State Forests which are actively managed and harvested for timber thus the roads are kept to a fairly high standard for harvesting vehicle access. To protect the roads from torrential tropical downpours they build a lot of these whoabouys. Most are crossable by a careful slow approach. Some however are too steep and we have actually gotten stuck on top of one of them last year. About 3 hours later with much digging, jacking and rock depositing we managed to back off it again.
This winter has been exceptionally dry and last week we encountered large pockets of bulldust that were not there at the beginning of the season. That bulldust will form mud holes which you will not get through with a 2WD after significant rainfall. We had a few storms circling last week, but no rain. I think it has rained out there in the past few days since we left though.
Don't try to drive into Bathampton or McMasters if it has rained as you will get stuck. There are plenty of places you can access Bathampton, 4 Mile and Birimgan by just parking beside the bitumen on Laglan Road and walking in from there. The left hand side of McDonalds Flat is likely to be accessible after rain, but less so the right hand side.
Good luck, we find gold there each time we go, but it is often small and as Ship of Fools says you will have to walk to find it.
Cheers,
Troutman
Thought you might be able to upgrade to a 4wd now Troutman? 
erfect:
Cheers
Doug
erfect: Cheers
Doug
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Rockhunter62 said:Thought you might be able to upgrade to a 4wd now Troutman?
Cheers
Doug
I'm working on it Doug. Only got 7 little ones last week for a total of 0.87g. My brother found 3 tiny ones with R's SDC which was pretty good for his first tour of Clermont.
G
Guest
Thanks Fellas for the above info.
I was born in Clermont & lived there for 12 yrs. Just have to get the motivation to do the 12 hr drive. Handy to know you can park on Laglan Rd & walk in.
I was born in Clermont & lived there for 12 yrs. Just have to get the motivation to do the 12 hr drive. Handy to know you can park on Laglan Rd & walk in.
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hey mate, best knife going the green river, sent you a PM,Cheers.
G
Guest
Will do, thanks so much.
Gday guys. Im making the trek out from Gold Coast towards the end of the month. If anyone is interested in a swing for a few days send me a message. I have a 4x4 so getting around is no issue, will be staying in Clermont so we can grab a beer or two afterwards.
Hi all,
New to the chase of the shiny stuff. Found some small pieces in the creeks and have an absolute ball doing it, but have just acquired a Gold Monster 1000 which I wanna run over some crevices and search for new ground. Tried the GM on the wet sand on the beaches around Mackay but virtually impossible to use. Works well on the dry sand but doesnt have the depth like other detectors. Interested to know of a good all round detector you can fully submerge the coil that Ill be able to search the beaches with as well as go out to the Clermont GPAs and hopefully find my first real nugget. How hard is it to locate gold out at Clermont and is there ways to fast track learning? Any advice would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Lint44.
New to the chase of the shiny stuff. Found some small pieces in the creeks and have an absolute ball doing it, but have just acquired a Gold Monster 1000 which I wanna run over some crevices and search for new ground. Tried the GM on the wet sand on the beaches around Mackay but virtually impossible to use. Works well on the dry sand but doesnt have the depth like other detectors. Interested to know of a good all round detector you can fully submerge the coil that Ill be able to search the beaches with as well as go out to the Clermont GPAs and hopefully find my first real nugget. How hard is it to locate gold out at Clermont and is there ways to fast track learning? Any advice would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Lint44.
From memory the coil on the monster can be fully submerged.
An SDC2300 would fill both voids in that it could be used at the beach and is submersible (but no discrimination and will drive you mental) and would be a cracker out at Clermont.
If you booked JP at Outback Prospector (in Clermont) for a day he would get you on the straight and narrow with the Monster. I remember him saying that he had a customer that was ready to piff the Monster until he spent some time with him. The bloke went on to ping many (I think in the hundreds) of nuggets out there. Bear in mind they were tiny nuggets. I will see if I can find that post for you.
An SDC2300 would fill both voids in that it could be used at the beach and is submersible (but no discrimination and will drive you mental) and would be a cracker out at Clermont.
If you booked JP at Outback Prospector (in Clermont) for a day he would get you on the straight and narrow with the Monster. I remember him saying that he had a customer that was ready to piff the Monster until he spent some time with him. The bloke went on to ping many (I think in the hundreds) of nuggets out there. Bear in mind they were tiny nuggets. I will see if I can find that post for you.
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Jonathon Porter is the bloke to talk to at Clermont, as he knows his stuff about Minelab detectors and the Nth Queensland gold fields.
