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

[ChristophBerlin]

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.

 

[grubstake]

Hi Christoph and welcome to PA.

Here in Australia, every state and territory sets its own rules and regulations for fossicking/prospecting/mining. These are the basic things you need to know about undertaking such activities in the Northern Territory:

Fossicking in Northern Territory (Northern Territory Government) -
https://fossicking.nt.gov.au/
NT Fossicking Q&A -
https://fossicking.nt.gov.au/useful-information/useful-resources
Publications -
https://fossicking.nt.gov.au/useful-information/publications----

 

[nucopia]

Welcome to the forum Christoph

 

[ChristophBerlin]

Hi Christoph and welcome to PA.

Here in Australia, every state and territory sets its own rules and regulations for fossicking/prospecting/mining. These are the basic things you need to know about undertaking such activities in the Northern Territory:

Fossicking in Northern Territory (Northern Territory Government) -
https://fossicking.nt.gov.au/
NT Fossicking Q&A -
https://fossicking.nt.gov.au/useful-information/useful-resources
Publications -
https://fossicking.nt.gov.au/useful-information/publications----

Hi Grustake,
Thank you for the warm welcome and the links... at the moment we are gathering all sort of informations about the do's and don'ts... a lot of information to work through, but thats part of the fun.
Best regards,
Christoph

 

[Nightjar]

Welcome to the forum and Australia, when you get here.
Some useful Gold Prospecting info here regarding the Northern Territory. Gold Prospecting NT

 

[Aries]

Welcome Cristoph,
Just out of curiosity, what made you and Cornelious pick the Northern Territory as your destination?

 

[grubstake]

Welcome Cristoph,
Just out of curiosity, what made you and Cornelious pick the Northern Territory as your destination?

Crocodile Dundee!

 

[ChristophBerlin]

Welcome Cristoph,
Just out of curiosity, what made you and Cornelious pick the Northern Territory as your destination?

Hi Aries,
yes, good question. By now we are wondering ourselves sometimes wether that was a mistake...

The main reason was that due to personal contact we already have permission to one big lease in the Pine Creek area. So we have one sure area to detect on.

And having that did make the difference. Because for us foreigners the whole problem of finding promising areas and getting legal acces (understanding the system with tennants/leases first, then getting consent of the landowner, understanding the geology, etc) is actually a big challenge and on first sight decouraging. But we are getting there, reading, researching, learning...

All the best,
Christoph


PS: And Maybe subconsciously even Crocodile Dundee did play a role here! I have seen this film so many times in the past, always loved it and saw it again about a year ago (I love films) and it was so perfect, was still fun even though it was made 40 years ago - and not many films from the 80s still work, age well. Such a good script, characters and lovely actors... And yes: a visit of Kakadu National Park is on the list.

 

[Aries]

Hi Aries,
yes, good question. By now we are wondering ourselves sometimes wether that was a mistake...

The main reason was that due to personal contact we already have permission to one big lease in the Pine Creek area. So we have one sure area to detect on.

And having that did make the difference. Because for us foreigners the whole problem of finding promising areas and getting legal acces (understanding the system with tennants/leases first, then getting consent of the landowner, understanding the geology, etc) is actually a big challenge and on first sight decouraging. But we are getting there, reading, researching, learning...

All the best,
Christoph


PS: And Maybe subconsciously even Crocodile Dundee did play a role here! I have seen this film so many times in the past, always loved it and saw it again about a year ago (I love films) and it was so perfect, was still fun even though it was made 40 years ago - and not many films from the 80s still work, age well. Such a good script, characters and lovely actors... And yes: a visit of Kakadu National Park is on the list.

That makes perfect sense mate, I wish you all the best.
The first nugget is always the hardest to find.

 

[Aries]

Just another question if I may? You obviously have detected a lot before but what detectors are you bringing to Australia?
Generally for gold here we use PI detectors and usually most use Minelab equipment. There is a small amount of users that use VLF detectors but generally they are not as successful in our mineralised ground.

 

[ChristophBerlin]

Just another question if I may? You obviously have detected a lot before but what detectors are you bringing to Australia?
Generally for gold here we use PI detectors and usually most use Minelab equipment. There is a small amount of users that use VLF detectors but generally they are not as successful in our mineralised ground.

Hi Aries,
yes, we are renting GPX 6000. Haven't decided on the coils yet, standard or maybe a bit bigger. Does depend on the undergrowth of the land we will be detecting, I guess. Which coil would you choose?
As emergency backup we are bringing our standard vlf-machines, a minelab equinox and a XP Deus I - even though we are aware, not really good for the mineralised ground. But maybe a bit of relaxed beach detecting will happen...
Started my detecting career with a CScope 1220 (vlf non motion, very heavy, but was a good tool in the early 90s) mooved on to minelab musketeer, Fisher 1266 and 1275 until XP Deus I - which was a real game changer here due to comfort, little weight, different frequencies, no cables. Perfect for dancing around on fields/in woods and finding tiny hammered coins etc.
Christoph

 

[ChristophBerlin]

Welcome to the forum and Australia, when you get here.
Some useful Gold Prospecting info here regarding the Northern Territory. Gold Prospecting NT

Hi Nightjar,
thank you very much for the link - very interesting reading, good compromised information.
Christoph

 

[Aries]

Hi Aries,
yes, we are renting GPX 6000. Haven't decided on the coils yet, standard or maybe a bit bigger. Does depend on the undergrowth of the land we will be detecting, I guess. Which coil would you choose?
As emergency backup we are bringing our standard vlf-machines, a minelab equinox and a XP Deus I - even though we are aware, not really good for the mineralised ground. But maybe a bit of relaxed beach detecting will happen...
Started my detecting career with a CScope 1220 (vlf non motion, very heavy, but was a good tool in the early 90s) mooved on to minelab musketeer, Fisher 1266 and 1275 until XP Deus I - which was a real game changer here due to comfort, little weight, different frequencies, no cables. Perfect for dancing around on fields/in woods and finding tiny hammered coins etc.
Christoph

Very good choice there with the 6000

I would stick with the standard 11 inch coil that the 6000 comes with.

 

[VicR]

Wie geht's Christoph,

Looks like you and Cornelious have been bitten badly by the gold wunderlust bug.

So you have really tackled the hardest part - getting written permission to detect on some land and you have made a good choice in detectors with the 6000. But just a few questions -

- is the area you have permission to detect, does it have known alluvial gold fields or will you be looking for a virgin gold patch?
- how long do you propose to be gold fossicking?

Coils for the 6000 - the standard 11" is a very good all round purpose coil - but there are a lot of reports of it failing (becoming unstable) . I have never had problems with mine but it would be wise to have a backup mono coil - whether that's a large or small mono will depend on the type of country you will be detecting in.

Cheers
Vic

 

[davsgold]

The main reason was that due to personal contact we already have permission to one big lease in the Pine Creek area. So we have one sure area to detect on.

And having that did make the difference. Because for us foreigners the whole problem of finding promising areas and getting legal acces (understanding the system with tennants/leases first, then getting consent of the landowner, understanding the geology, etc) is actually a big challenge and on first sight decouraging. But we are getting there, reading, researching, learning...

All the best,
Christoph


PS: And Maybe subconsciously even Crocodile Dundee did play a role here! I have seen this film so many times in the past, always loved it and saw it again about a year ago (I love films) and it was so perfect, was still fun even though it was made 40 years ago - and not many films from the 80s still work, age well. Such a good script, characters and lovely actors... And yes: a visit of Kakadu National Park is on the list.

G'day Christoph, welcome to gold detecting in Australia, I have meet a few of your countrymen (from Germany) great people and have detected with them on a few occasions, in Western Australia.

If your watching movies about Australia then my advice is Don't watch "Wolf Creek " just before you come over here

Here is sone info about Historical gold diggings in and around Pine Creek NT https://historicalgoldmaps.com.au/historical-gold-maps-of-the-northern-territory-goldfields/

and the info that Nightjar sent in his post is very good also

 

[ChristophBerlin]

G'day Christoph, welcome to gold detecting in Australia, I have meet a few of your countrymen (from Germany) great people and have detected with them on a few occasions, in Western Australia.

If your watching movies about Australia then my advice is Don't watch "Wolf Creek " just before you come over here

Here is sone info about Historical gold diggings in and around Pine Creek NT https://historicalgoldmaps.com.au/historical-gold-maps-of-the-northern-territory-goldfields/

and the info that Nightjar sent in his post is very good also

Hi Davsgold,
"Don't watch it" - yeah, thats how to get me interested... But after reading about it, maybe not a film I should mention to the Lady, she is already worrying about me sitting in the bush, relaxed at the fire, having a beer, while there is scorpions and snakes getting comfortable in my boots... lets not ad the fear of crazy people lurking in the outback...

Thank you so much for the link - I love historical maps, so much info there... wonderful!!!

About detecting in WA: How big is the difference to detecting in the NT? And why?

Christoph

 

[ChristophBerlin]

Wie geht's Christoph,

Looks like you and Cornelious have been bitten badly by the gold wunderlust bug.

So you have really tackled the hardest part - getting written permission to detect on some land and you have made a good choice in detectors with the 6000. But just a few questions -

- is the area you have permission to detect, does it have known alluvial gold fields or will you be looking for a virgin gold patch?
- how long do you propose to be gold fossicking?

Coils for the 6000 - the standard 11" is a very good all round purpose coil - but there are a lot of reports of it failing (becoming unstable) . I have never had problems with mine but it would be wise to have a backup mono coil - whether that's a large or small mono will depend on the type of country you will be detecting in.

Cheers
Vic

Hi VicR,
yes, been bitten by the treasure hunting and gold bug heavily... cost me a lot of time and money (books, maps, detectors, petrol etc) over the years, but I still think detecting is the best hobby in the world!!!

The area we are having permission to seems to have alluvial gold, but was worked by the oldtimers in the 19th century as much as it was dug up by modern companies in the 80s. And of course, I dont think we will be the first to detect there - but still, its big enough to maybe find untouched spots. So we hope.

Are you detecting in the NT?
Christoph

 

[ChristophBerlin]

Very good choice there with the 6000

I would stick with the standard 11 inch coil that the 6000 comes with.

Hi Aries and VicR,
thank you for the info on the coils. Thats what we needed, some confirmation/clarification.
We will stick to the standard mono-coils. And yes, we are going to rent an extra back-up coil.
Your German Greenhorn,
Christoph

 

[Aries]

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.

 

[Hawkear]

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.