German Greenhorns dreaming of australian gold... (Northern Territory)

[Ricee]

Hello everybody!
I am Christoph from Berlin in Germany. In July/August 2024 I will travel with my detecting-buddy Cornelius to the Northern Territory for the sole purpose of finding some of the golden stuff.
We are in our early 50s and both experienced detectorists (together more than 40 years of swinging the coil), have been detecting all over Germany and Europe, fields, woods, beaches, water detecting, diving, bottle digging - all with good success, finding all sorts of treasures over the years (and even more rubbish, of course.). But finding gold in its natural form, that is something of a live dream to us, that is something that was always on our bucket list.
And now it will actually happen. The flights are booked. Hurray!
Already I have found a lot of useful information on this forum - thank you for that. But over the next weeks/months I will bother you all with a few more questions about many details - as we are aware, that detecting in Australia for natural gold is a totally different thing to everything we have done before. The geology, the wildlife, the weather, getting legal access to leases, etc.
So we feel like total greenhorns.
So thank you in advance for your friendly help.
All the best to you,
Christoph
PS: If you have any questions about detecting in germany, or just detecting/travelling europe in general, don't hesitate to contact me.

Hi Cristoph. I'm Richard from Swiss, living in Spain. I'm interesting to make a group to find Gold nuggets in the Northern Territory, is my dream, please send a PM https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/conversations/add?to=Ricee

Mod edit: no phone numbers on the forum please.

 

[Nightjar]

Aries mentions bottled water. It is just an expensive fad that people these days think you must use.
Get yourselves some containers and fill them with town tap water. There are no known cases of any Australian dying drinking town tap water.

 

[davsgold]

Aries mentions bottled water. It is just an expensive fad that people these days think you must use.
Get yourselves some containers and fill them with town tap water. There are no known cases of any Australian dying drinking town tap water.

exactly and if you don't like the taste run it through an inline filter as you fill your containers

 

[Aries]

Aries mentions bottled water. It is just an expensive fad that people these days think you must use.
Get yourselves some containers and fill them with town tap water. There are no known cases of any Australian dying drinking town tap water.

Table 1​

All-source annual burden of selected gastrointestinal pathogens, Australia, 20108

	Cases​	Deaths​	DALY​
Campylobacteriosis	774,003	52	18,222
Salmonellosis	71,255	90	3,856
Norovirus	2,180,145	17	1,109
Giardiasis	614,740	0	967
Cryptosporidiosis	195,495	0	333

 

[Aries]

"There are no known cases of any Australian dying drinking town tap water."

Any quick google will reveal the absurdity of that statement.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5462579/
I do by the way cart my own water but many visitors to our leases cannot stomach Cue water which I think is fine.

 

[VicR]

Hi Christoph - some good advice from Aries. Be well prepared.

I have detected for gold in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia. Western Australia is the place for metal detecting for gold but it is a huge area - plenty of stories about prospectors spending weeks looking for the next patch of gold and finding nothing - but when you do find that patch you get the reward. My personal favourite place is Tibooburra in the corner country of NSW because its a easy one day drive from my place (850km), there's always gold to be found (usually only small bits), same amazing geology & its safe. Your permission looks promising - if you have not detected for gold before it would be good to have someone show you the ropes in terms of how to get the best out of the 6000, places that look promising and gold detecting techniques - would save you days of trial and error.

Now whether you find gold or not in the Northern Territory you are going to get an adventure like no where else in the world. You are going to meet lots of "characters" out in the bush and see the real Australia - so many times when i have been overseas talking to people & they tell me they have been to Australia but only Sydney - now while Sydney is a great place i tell them they have seen Sydney not Australia. So good on ya for having a go - if you do get into trouble you will find most people more than willing to help you out.

Just one last point - "green horn" is American - back in the 1850's people just arriving on the Australian goldfields who were novice prospectors were called "new chums".

Cheers
Vic

 

[ChristophBerlin]

How long will you be here? That is a question I ask because there comes a time point where it may be worth while to buy and resell a detector rather than rent. Used 6000s are still commanding very good secondhand prices especially if sold with lots of warranty left.
Additionally if you buy you may be able to obtain a package with some extras.

Hi Hawkear,
we thought about buying... but its only a three week trip - and selling does take time, which we wont have. So on this first trip we will rent, if we like it and find some gold, pretty sure we will come back and then we will buy and keep...
Christoph

 

[ChristophBerlin]

Christoph,
More than likely the 6000 that you hire will come with a 11' mono and a 14'DD coil, the DD coil while not my favourite is a perfectly acceptable back up coil.
Some advice if I may,
Stock up all your food and bottled water (take heaps) in Darwin its not uncommon for remote service stations to charge $6-7 for a single 600ml bottle of water, food is the same and can be very expensive outback.
Pre Covid I lived/worked in Germany (Leer-Bremerhaven area) and I was shocked how cheap your food was, be prepared to be shocked in the opposite direction.
Make sure that you have spare tyres for your vehicle.
Take an EPIRB and let someone know where you are heading and for how long you will be there at all time.
Telephone reception in Australia doesn't cover everywhere but much greater coverage is had by subscribers to our National carrier TELSTRA don't get any other SIM card like Optus or others.
But have fun and I hope that you get heaps of gold.

Hi Aries,
I presume there will be an EPIRB on board of the vehicle - we will find out in time. Besides we are thinking about renting a satelite telephone, its only a couple of euros a day and could be of help in case of problems. Thank you very much for the TELSTRA-info, that is very good to know.
About food and water: we will be stocking up plenty. The general idea is to spend 3 to 4 days bush-camping and then having a break, spending one night on an official camping site, getting water, doing some shopping etc

Besides: How long were you in germany? Hope, you had a good time there...
Christoph

 

[Aries]

Hi Aries,
I presume there will be an EPIRB on board of the vehicle - we will find out in time. Besides we are thinking about renting a satelite telephone, its only a couple of euros a day and could be of help in case of problems. Thank you very much for the TELSTRA-info, that is very good to know.
About food and water: we will be stocking up plenty. The general idea is to spend 3 to 4 days bush-camping and then having a break, spending one night on an official camping site, getting water, doing some shopping etc

Besides: How long were you in germany? Hope, you had a good time there...
Christoph

Christoph,

I spent 5 months mainly over the summer of 2017 , your summer our winter predominately in Leer, beautiful little town in the North. Your summers are not very hot but the sun doesn't set until nearly midnight there.

Thats the main square of the town, the two monuments the statue and the rock are very interesting but here is not the place to discuss the history behind them.
Went to Hamburg and the Reeperbahn a few times, likewise best not discussed here.

Back to you, most hire vehicles do not come with an EPIRB, some may but i have not come across them.
Be careful driving, most cows are not fenced in Australia's north also our lovely kangaroo has a habit of jumping in front of cars, especially at night. A kangaroo can destroy a car if hit at speed.
Our roads are a lot rougher than any in Germany but if you are careful they are really not a problem.