Hello all

[Prunehands]

Hi all,
I've been interested in all forms of prospecting for a while now. Love exploring remote areas in the Victorian alpine areas. I generally don't participate in online forums, but this site and the people on it come across as a responsible and helpful community. So, thanks for sharing your knowledge and allowing me to be a part of it.
A few years ago, I was detecting a remote, and difficult to access area that is not heritage listed, or in a national park. The area was a gully that ran into a river, and showed extensive alluvial mining. I am not experienced in detecting and was using a minelab exterra 705 with a 9" concentric coil at 7.5 kHz. I had almost given up, and was detecting along a trench that was filled in with medium sized cobbles and received a loud signal. After removing some cobbles, I saw the blade of a rusted out shovel. I was going to leave it in place, but removed enough rocks and overburden to dislodge it, and saw that underneath was a the lid of a pot. I spent a while clearing the area, and uncovered what seems to be a stash of equipment that an old miner left in place, never to return to.
I've emailed the local historical society nearest to the area I was, but received no reply. Just wondering what people might do with these items, as they are sitting in the shed, not being appreciated. Although imagining the story these pieces tell is interesting to me, I am wondering if anyone has advice on what they might do with the pieces? The image shows roughly what was uncovered, but I'm happy to post further details if anyone is interested. The one that got my heart racing a little was a small, glass bottle, covered in dirt, that had an distinct heaviness to it. However, after scraping away the dirt, I saw not the gleam of gold, but silver. It seems to be a bottle of mercury, with the cork still intact.

 

[manficat]

Hi all,
I've been interested in all forms of prospecting for a while now. Love exploring remote areas in the Victorian alpine areas. I generally don't participate in online forums, but this site and the people on it come across as a responsible and helpful community. So, thanks for sharing your knowledge and allowing me to be a part of it.
A few years ago, I was detecting a remote, and difficult to access area that is not heritage listed, or in a national park. The area was a gully that ran into a river, and showed extensive alluvial mining. I am not experienced in detecting and was using a minelab exterra 705 with a 9" concentric coil at 7.5 kHz. I had almost given up, and was detecting along a trench that was filled in with medium sized cobbles and received a loud signal. After removing some cobbles, I saw the blade of a rusted out shovel. I was going to leave it in place, but removed enough rocks and overburden to dislodge it, and saw that underneath was a the lid of a pot. I spent a while clearing the area, and uncovered what seems to be a stash of equipment that an old miner left in place, never to return to.
I've emailed the local historical society nearest to the area I was, but received no reply. Just wondering what people might do with these items, as they are sitting in the shed, not being appreciated. Although imagining the story these pieces tell is interesting to me, I am wondering if anyone has advice on what they might do with the pieces? The image shows roughly what was uncovered, but I'm happy to post further details if anyone is interested. The one that got my heart racing a little was a small, glass bottle, covered in dirt, that had an distinct heaviness to it. However, after scraping away the dirt, I saw not the gleam of gold, but silver. It seems to be a bottle of mercury, with the cork still intact.

Very interesting - a great glimpse into the history of the area

 

[Hawkear]

Wow. Awesome find.
Most importantly I would try to keep the finds together to form a complete picture of the find.
I wouldn’t give up on the historical societies just yet and maybe worth contacting the local council to see if they can provide the telephone number of someone to actually speak to.
I all I can say is that if I were running a local museum I would be very interested in displaying the cache as one entity to give an example of what a miners kit might look like.
If you get nowhere locally even somewhere else like the gold museum in Dunolly might be worth a try.

 

[Prunehands]

Thanks for the advice. I'll try and get hold of someone to speak with. Agreed, I haven't cleaned it up properly, but there was the whole kit in there including candles, a sharpening stone axe head, pipe stems, bottles, and a set of pennyweights. Some of it is in pretty rusted out condition - especially the pennyweights, but someone more experienced than I might do well with a proper clean up.