Wow - that bloke isn't afraid of hard work!
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Goldtarget
(AKA OldGT)
Inspirational!
Goldtarget
(AKA OldGT)
Was a long day.
Went up to Beechworth, then Yackandandah.
Ill put a full write up down when I get back tomorrow, there was gold!
Boss and I are out early tomorrow to shovel at Eldorado.
His and my theories vary a little, Im sure he wants to target particular zones as observed from videos.
After Seeing Digger Tom in action up there I see some merit in getting into crevices etc.
Went up to Beechworth, then Yackandandah.
Ill put a full write up down when I get back tomorrow, there was gold!
Boss and I are out early tomorrow to shovel at Eldorado.
His and my theories vary a little, Im sure he wants to target particular zones as observed from videos.
After Seeing Digger Tom in action up there I see some merit in getting into crevices etc.
Goldtarget
(AKA OldGT)
Highbanking!
Ya gotta love a Gold Rat.
Goldtarget
(AKA OldGT)
Finally back home.
So its been a couple of full days.
Wednesday
I went up to Beechworth via Reedy to check out the flow.
Had a bit of a scratch around in a spot Id only visited once before, did some crevices, chatted with a family enjoying a bit of prospecting.
Destroyed my hands, but got a couple of bits, and a speci. Id love to go back for a proper day. Its not easy to get to, water is scarce, and classifying is hard work. Its definitely on the list for a proper day when I get time.
So after battling the blackberries, mozzies, sun, and dust, heres the result.
Not amazing, but promising. Filled up another spot in the gold box. Got gold from all over in there, kinda wish that I got started back when I first started.
Then it was of to Yackandandah to do a bit of recon. The map was ok, maybe Im the idiot, took me a good 40 mins to get to where I needed to be.
Again with the blackberries haha, I did get to walk a section by going through a camp-site, obviously respectfully. Usually I try to avoid interrupting, but the people were cool.
Didnt get to test pan, its definitely a spot Ill go back to. Probably out of school holidays though.
Thursday.
Got up early, had a bit of a drive around Eldorado. It was peak visiting season, everywhere you could go was occupied.
Interesting to see all the small road closures. In some ways I kinda get it, obviously there were places that had signs of impact that they want to discourage.
On the other hand I think sometimes the response is heavy handed, and the authorities seem to want to penalise the many for the few.
My own view is that the area has been traditionally occupied with gold seekers for generations, theres large holes dug all up and down the sides of the hills by genuine miners, erosion throughout, what 99% or higher of the people who visit are doing doesnt equate to terraforming.
Theres simply no recognition that Mother nature is all conquering, and highly adaptive.
So we settled on a spot and put the shovels to work. The gold we got wasn't amazing except for one flatter chunky bit. A picker. Or a baby picker. Given it was busy, we had to hike everything in to an out of the way area. Was it worth it? Not really, but rocks were washed.
I gave the gold up to my digging mate, his boys love that stuff. Learnt a few things. Foot valve kept getting clogged so I need a better housing design, trade out the layflat for some stronger shorter hose, swap the bars over, move the collection tray back a bit, and for my liking pull out the miners moss at the top for black rib.
It went ok but we did have flow issues.
I did have a good day, kinda wished we spent it in a different spot, or maybe even a different creek, but thats gold for you haha.
Going back to closer digs for the next run, some holes I got gold from the mullock. Its so dry, Tuesday I drove around, all 6 main dams Id use were bone dry or mere puddles.
I have a private dam thats mid way between main areas, few ML capacity. Plan is to set up there, leave the highbanker and bring some labelled buckets back.
So that's it. Ill get some more photos maybe some vid next time, instead of wall of words. Most of what I took today has my mate in it, dont think he'd care, but it is a public forum.
Cheers.
So its been a couple of full days.
Wednesday
I went up to Beechworth via Reedy to check out the flow.
Had a bit of a scratch around in a spot Id only visited once before, did some crevices, chatted with a family enjoying a bit of prospecting.
Destroyed my hands, but got a couple of bits, and a speci. Id love to go back for a proper day. Its not easy to get to, water is scarce, and classifying is hard work. Its definitely on the list for a proper day when I get time.
So after battling the blackberries, mozzies, sun, and dust, heres the result.
Not amazing, but promising. Filled up another spot in the gold box. Got gold from all over in there, kinda wish that I got started back when I first started.
Then it was of to Yackandandah to do a bit of recon. The map was ok, maybe Im the idiot, took me a good 40 mins to get to where I needed to be.
Again with the blackberries haha, I did get to walk a section by going through a camp-site, obviously respectfully. Usually I try to avoid interrupting, but the people were cool.
Didnt get to test pan, its definitely a spot Ill go back to. Probably out of school holidays though.
Thursday.
Got up early, had a bit of a drive around Eldorado. It was peak visiting season, everywhere you could go was occupied.
Interesting to see all the small road closures. In some ways I kinda get it, obviously there were places that had signs of impact that they want to discourage.
On the other hand I think sometimes the response is heavy handed, and the authorities seem to want to penalise the many for the few.
My own view is that the area has been traditionally occupied with gold seekers for generations, theres large holes dug all up and down the sides of the hills by genuine miners, erosion throughout, what 99% or higher of the people who visit are doing doesnt equate to terraforming.
Theres simply no recognition that Mother nature is all conquering, and highly adaptive.
So we settled on a spot and put the shovels to work. The gold we got wasn't amazing except for one flatter chunky bit. A picker. Or a baby picker. Given it was busy, we had to hike everything in to an out of the way area. Was it worth it? Not really, but rocks were washed.
I gave the gold up to my digging mate, his boys love that stuff. Learnt a few things. Foot valve kept getting clogged so I need a better housing design, trade out the layflat for some stronger shorter hose, swap the bars over, move the collection tray back a bit, and for my liking pull out the miners moss at the top for black rib.
It went ok but we did have flow issues.
I did have a good day, kinda wished we spent it in a different spot, or maybe even a different creek, but thats gold for you haha.
Going back to closer digs for the next run, some holes I got gold from the mullock. Its so dry, Tuesday I drove around, all 6 main dams Id use were bone dry or mere puddles.
I have a private dam thats mid way between main areas, few ML capacity. Plan is to set up there, leave the highbanker and bring some labelled buckets back.
So that's it. Ill get some more photos maybe some vid next time, instead of wall of words. Most of what I took today has my mate in it, dont think he'd care, but it is a public forum.
Cheers.
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