Can't help there unfortunately, I'm more of a day tripper and dont end up digging deep. Good luck!
Help Support Prospecting Australia:
'Gold drifts' are the buried layers of gravel in which gold was deposited by erosion and stream/river action millenia ago - see more details here:
https://www.startyourowngoldmine.co...-gold/gold-prospecting-auriferous-drifts.html
Most of these were discovered in the old goldrush days and exploited by subsequent mining activity, so without sinking shafts down to the bedrock level in unmined ground, tailings from old mining are probably your only option.
Thanks heaps mate! Kinda what I was thinking, been looking at old geology maps and am trying to pin point areas, I've found where the upper, middle and lower gold drifts are in Pliocene and associated with some mines, but would you know which of the three would be better to find gemstones in the tailings? Won't bother with gold in tailings without a detector, but would be happy to sieve stones for a day
No, sorry - that's outside my limited knowledge of geology.Thanks heaps mate! Kinda what I was thinking, been looking at old geology maps and am trying to pin point areas, I've found where the upper, middle and lower gold drifts are in Pliocene and associated with some mines, but would you know which of the three would be better to find gemstones in the tailings? Won't bother with gold in tailings without a detector, but would be happy to sieve stones for a day
Can't help either. Im sure you'll do well with all this research. Make sure you tell us how you do, there's many keen people who would love to revisit this area. Also, do some research on the ridge road quarry in Daylesford. Haven't been there myself, but it seems promising.Thanks heaps mate! Kinda what I was thinking, been looking at old geology maps and am trying to pin point areas, I've found where the upper, middle and lower gold drifts are in Pliocene and associated with some mines, but would you know which of the three would be better to find gemstones in the tailings? Won't bother with gold in tailings without a detector, but would be happy to sieve stones for a day
Nah no worries cheers mate! You've helped me out plenty already, I've been searching far and wide but seems minimal info on gems in the GT compared to elsewhere, guess they just always focused on the gold
Cheers mate will look into it, quick google shows it seems VERY close to town, hopefully I can still have a dig there!
Will for sure post updates when I come back
Seems to be crown land and all good, was worried because I saw houses in each directionCheers mate will look into it, quick google shows it seems VERY close to town, hopefully I can still have a dig there!
Will for sure post updates when I come back
tho i would love a house somewhere like that
This old thread may be of assistance:Nah no worries cheers mate! You've helped me out plenty already, I've been searching far and wide but seems minimal info on gems in the GT compared to elsewhere, guess they just always focused on the gold
https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...ocalities-published-1933-digitised-1982.3557/
I did have a look at that post, and that list seems to be pretty much the exact same as the list in the second book I quoted earlier (how to find Australian gemstones by Derrick and Doug Stone), even says opals at Daylesford as well
Cheers for all your tips legends!! Ended up only finding a good spot on the last day (always the bloody way isn't it), was a beautiful place and am keen to get down again asap,
You were right about the hard to find a sizeable stone, only a couple that got caught in the 5mm sieve, one being a very bad quality sapphire but don't care about the quality just fkn stoked to have it in the collection!!
All up got about 3/4 of a gram of gold, including a few real nice pickers and 4 very tiny sapphires (not to mention a billion zircon and cassiterite and maybe garnets? Not sure but way more red than zircon)
Will get some pictures of it when I clean it up tomorrow or the next day, but won't be of everything ive found, as I've made up a little paydirt for a mate that couldn't make it and hasn't been panning in a long time due to knee operations and life getting in the way that has a couple of pickers, a sapphire and a lot of the gemstones for him to have some fun with
You were right about the hard to find a sizeable stone, only a couple that got caught in the 5mm sieve, one being a very bad quality sapphire but don't care about the quality just fkn stoked to have it in the collection!!
All up got about 3/4 of a gram of gold, including a few real nice pickers and 4 very tiny sapphires (not to mention a billion zircon and cassiterite and maybe garnets? Not sure but way more red than zircon)
Will get some pictures of it when I clean it up tomorrow or the next day, but won't be of everything ive found, as I've made up a little paydirt for a mate that couldn't make it and hasn't been panning in a long time due to knee operations and life getting in the way that has a couple of pickers, a sapphire and a lot of the gemstones for him to have some fun with
Good job on the sapphires. I better get back there, I still havent found my first sapphire. Good job in the gold department too, much better than what I found there. Hope you had a good time!Cheers for all your tips legends!! Ended up only finding a good spot on the last day (always the bloody way isn't it), was a beautiful place and am keen to get down again asap,
You were right about the hard to find a sizeable stone, only a couple that got caught in the 5mm sieve, one being a very bad quality sapphire but don't care about the quality just fkn stoked to have it in the collection!!
All up got about 3/4 of a gram of gold, including a few real nice pickers and 4 very tiny sapphires (not to mention a billion zircon and cassiterite and maybe garnets? Not sure but way more red than zircon)
Will get some pictures of it when I clean it up tomorrow or the next day, but won't be of everything ive found, as I've made up a little paydirt for a mate that couldn't make it and hasn't been panning in a long time due to knee operations and life getting in the way that has a couple of pickers, a sapphire and a lot of the gemstones for him to have some fun with
Cheers man was bloody hard work! And if there's anything I know how to find its gemstones, just the yellow stuff I'm new at, every single bucket was sieved through a 5mm crystal sieve and only found 2 in the sieve, one sapphire one decent zircon, the rest were under 5mm and were in the bottom of the pan, was a lot of searching for the sapphires but I wasn't coming home without them
was the most stunning place I've been and was a very good week for R+R 
rough clean up coming soon, just doing it now Here's a rough clean up, put of the whole trip im stoked with the green and blue sapphire and the big chunky sapphire the most 
and definitely can't complain about my first ever gold take, tho spent all but the last day looking for a good spot the two big pickers weigh .04 and .06
and definitely can't complain about my first ever gold take, tho spent all but the last day looking for a good spot the two big pickers weigh .04 and .06 Attachments
Oh and the gold I've shown in the clean up there isn't quite all of it, I put maybe 1/4 of what I found in this little jar for my mate to play with, also has my second best picker and second best sapphire in it, as well as all my cons with the fine gold so I don't have to deal with it with nothing but a pan (he has a blue bowl, I havent haha)
Good job on the big zircons or garnets, they could be facetable. The sapphires are nice too, but those pickers make my mouth water! Nice job!
Thanks man! Was pretty chuffed when I saw that big chunk in the pan on my last day
definitely plan faceting my gemstones eventually, but definitely more interested in just stocking up the collection for a few years 
That’s a great story Vegemite and a lesson for many. Be prepared to ask a few questions, do some research, then get out there and do it.
Thanks for the follow up report which is especially pleasing for those that responded to your post.
Thanks for the follow up report which is especially pleasing for those that responded to your post.
Thanks Hawkear! Definitely a lesson for me!
dunno if I would've found anything without all the help from past and present threads here, but the most learning I did was definitely on the creek, Now I'm thinking I'm gonna have to catch a bus back down there with the ****** cheap sluice ive got, if I can get most of that in a day of panning I have to run it through a sluice
just hoping it hasn't been smashed already because it was a bit obvious what crevices I was cleaning 
Most old books are based on 'Reported' Finds... Not actual finds. .. Lots of Minerals and shiny stuff wasn't correctly identified back in the day... Old books are good for reference, but not 100% reliable...
LW...
LW...
