- Joined
- Aug 25, 2014
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 28
New arrival to Melbourne having left family and friends behind in Wellington for work here. With little to do in the weekends at the moment a google search for fossils turned up the fact there was gold in Victoria - lots of it. Many hours of googling during work hours and a trip to prospecting supplies in Melbourne and I was all set. Shovel, Pans, couple of buckets and a hand 'sniffer' for sucking out stuff in crevasses.
Friday headed north to Eldorado, parked up the night in one of the camp areas by the river. Forgot it was still winter and by gods it got cold during the night. I don't have much of my gear from NZ yet, but thankfully I packed my hat.
Morning arrived and a drive around woolshed road looking for a likely spot. Saw my first two wild kangeroos, and parked up for the day beside the river. My first pan and I got 4 specks of gold, and then it was all on. 7 hours of solid panning later and although the going was slow I was picking up a couple of flecks per pan most of the day. That night I was shattered. Body ached all over from kneeling by river all day and swirling that pan.
Next morning headed to a new spot, and spent most of the day wading in the river using the sucker tool under rocks and in small cracks. That worked a lot better than just trying to pan bulk alluvials, and a lot easier on the body just panning off smaller amounts of more concentrated fines with more gold in. I think best pan probably 20 small specks and flecks.
mid afternoon had to reluctantly pack up and head back to Melbourne.
Awesome weekend, My first weekend out of the city in Australia and the park areas just so very beautiful. Really nice weather, and managed to find some gold, including a small picker.
I think I'm off to buy a sluice though. I don't think I could do another 7 hours with the pan. Back at work today and feel like I rode a horse all the way back from Beechworth...
Pics:
Spent all first day digging out area by blue pan.
Camping night 2. My first Jeep and i'ts been brilliant to trip around in and I can comfortably sleep in it. Might get some racks for the roof for all the equipment though.
My Best pan.
The final tally - although I have about 5kg of fine stuff when I was getting too tired to pan that I know theres small amounts of gold in. I might get one of those blue bowls at some point to sort through it.
Considering I had no real idea what I was doing, I had a great time!
Friday headed north to Eldorado, parked up the night in one of the camp areas by the river. Forgot it was still winter and by gods it got cold during the night. I don't have much of my gear from NZ yet, but thankfully I packed my hat.
Morning arrived and a drive around woolshed road looking for a likely spot. Saw my first two wild kangeroos, and parked up for the day beside the river. My first pan and I got 4 specks of gold, and then it was all on. 7 hours of solid panning later and although the going was slow I was picking up a couple of flecks per pan most of the day. That night I was shattered. Body ached all over from kneeling by river all day and swirling that pan.
Next morning headed to a new spot, and spent most of the day wading in the river using the sucker tool under rocks and in small cracks. That worked a lot better than just trying to pan bulk alluvials, and a lot easier on the body just panning off smaller amounts of more concentrated fines with more gold in. I think best pan probably 20 small specks and flecks.
mid afternoon had to reluctantly pack up and head back to Melbourne.
Awesome weekend, My first weekend out of the city in Australia and the park areas just so very beautiful. Really nice weather, and managed to find some gold, including a small picker.
I think I'm off to buy a sluice though. I don't think I could do another 7 hours with the pan. Back at work today and feel like I rode a horse all the way back from Beechworth...
Pics:
Spent all first day digging out area by blue pan.
Camping night 2. My first Jeep and i'ts been brilliant to trip around in and I can comfortably sleep in it. Might get some racks for the roof for all the equipment though.
My Best pan.
The final tally - although I have about 5kg of fine stuff when I was getting too tired to pan that I know theres small amounts of gold in. I might get one of those blue bowls at some point to sort through it.
Considering I had no real idea what I was doing, I had a great time!
