cheers for that, now if you were on lets say fresh (virgin) ground that one knew was identical to the ones in the photo that were just below the surface should you be looking to sample the most mineralized area directly on top of the hard pack and dig down through it or should you look for where the brim (edge) of the hard pack rests on top of the slate and would one start sampling at the top or the bottom and work your way under the hard pack if this new area was in a gully lets say ? and my final question is when I decide to dig I would like to be within my legal boundaries so to speak and I was just looking at the rules and obligations and I noticed that the depth that was allowed is no longer stated in the rules and obligations http://www.energyandresources.vic.gov.au/earth-resources-regulation/recreational-prospecting-and-fossicking/rules-and-obligations has it been revised and does it come under health and safety now as in you need to have fall protection in place by someone who is qualified by Work Safe to erect fall protection as I thought the rule was you cant dig over 2 meters well at least that was what I thought any clarification in regards to depth would be a good start as it may not be worth the bother.. GC
GC
.if so then you know you have a good alluvial deposit at your disposal albeit, one that will require a great deal of processing. Next i would clear the floor of your dig till you reveal the hard surface of the slate.if that slate as been open to the elements ,as it looks, then you will find you can actually scrape into the slate surface an inch or two..that's good'' for that's where you will find a LOT of gold..if its there... as it should be... as it will have dropped out of that hard packed gravels you see overlying it when it was wet and sloppy.From there on in you may well be faced with ever growing extension of the diggings you already have before you... only your initial trials as i have humbly suggested will tell....... One of the things my old grandfather told me in asking him where to find gold was...""ITS ON TOP OF THE SLATE SON.. YA GOTTA DIG DOWN TO THE SLATE... SCRATCH THE BEJESUS OUT OF THE SURFACE MATE,,CLEAN IT UP WITH A BLOODY GOOD BRUSH..that's where it is"" I hope this may give you the confidence you need to go at it. Based on the pictures you have provided this is how i would approach this site AND SO YOU MAY HAVE TO WEIGH UP WHETHER OR NOT ITS GOING TO BE WORTH YOUR TIME AND EFFORT..I'm not yelling by the way..just trying to highlight those things i deem important. Good luck with it ...ROSSCO aka reefer
here in the first pic the reef of gold was at the top of the pic out of sight in the picture and I imagine worked its way down the hill over time the orange circled areas are just the high points of the slate bedrock and as the gold travels down between the high points acting like a channel, and above the red mark is all the overburden, as they worked there way up the hill the sunk test holes to follow the direction that the gold was coming from hence the holes you see in your own area they were the most concentrated of mineralized pockets and some reached down to the bedrock in this case it was slate and the blue circle is from someone that was more clued on than me :lol: now pretend you took the photo and then turned around and took the bottom photo now that is where the hard pack meets the slate and the orange marked area is hard slate covered with some loose rubble .. really I hope it makes sense 
then try breaking through that aggregate and test some of it... my guess is that if there's gold it will be low in the gravels there... sitting on and into the surface of the slate.cheers ROSSCO.. Aussiefarmer..those pits at the end of those numerous trenches suggests to me that they were constructing a banjo.. that is they dig a long trench(six.ft) into which they would lay a blanket and then cut and fit timber riffles across its length..at the head of the trench where you see what looks like a test hole is in fact a pit leading to the riffles on top of which was placed a sheet of roofing iron or top of a drum into which they had poked a pickhead through and all over to form a grate. gold bearing material was placed on top of this and water applied by bucket or other means.the gold was of course caught in the riffles in the same way as a rocker or modern day highbanker way. I dont think they would have taken water up to them however if there is evidence of a race having been there then they may well have..other than that i am at a loss to decipher your dilemma...cheers
good luck with it all my freind. cheers.... Rossco
thanx GC
