Keep your eyes out for little things called Death adders lol Lesgold will know what I mean.
Cheers
Bob
Cheers
Bob
Mogo area N.S.W. information and questions
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Has anyone tried the Mogo area after the fires?
No, we're all waiting for you to Auke!....How ya doing mate?
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G'day mate, going OK haven't been out for a while I'll check out the area this week hopefully. How are things going with you?
Yeah, I haven't had a chance to get out for a while either!
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Mogo State Forest is still closed as at 2/03/20.
Some NSW State Forests have reopened but not many overall.
Full list of forest status here: (as at 2/03/20)
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/doc/member-docs/4485/1583185933_full-list-of-closures-at-2-march-2020-1100-1.pdf
Some NSW State Forests have reopened but not many overall.
Full list of forest status here: (as at 2/03/20)
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/doc/member-docs/4485/1583185933_full-list-of-closures-at-2-march-2020-1100-1.pdf
mbasko said:
I've heard of people getting in there but despite the heavy rains (and more to come I think) and the strong winds a little while ago there would still be a number of trees struggling and perhaps dropping for a while longer I suspect.
Hi Guys,
On the subject of Mogo I was going to head up to do some prospecting in the state forest in a few weeks and am just doing some research and from what I'm seeing on the FCNSW maps website its mostly a no go area?? is this right? has something changed.
Last time i went out there a few years and was all good. Any ideas?
1602930173_capture.jpg
https://fcnsw.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=db08e563e1b6403fabde1ce901389fa2
On the subject of Mogo I was going to head up to do some prospecting in the state forest in a few weeks and am just doing some research and from what I'm seeing on the FCNSW maps website its mostly a no go area?? is this right? has something changed.
Last time i went out there a few years and was all good. Any ideas?
1602930173_capture.jpg
https://fcnsw.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=db08e563e1b6403fabde1ce901389fa2
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This is the most recent post on I could find on prospecting around Mogo, so I thought I'd give an update on two trips a mate and I did in the area in early September and late November 2020.
Keep in mind my mate and I are pretty new to gold detecting and our first trip to Mogo was my first outing with a new SDC2300, so the purpose of the trip was to take the theory we'd learned form books, maps, YouTube and this forum and try put it into practice. I anticipate doing a few posts outlining the things were saw/learned and questions that came up in the hope of passing on some info to others and perhaps getting some constructive feedback from the forum.
When I reach 10 post on the forum I'll post some photos of the areas we visited.
In September we found that if you draw a line on the map from Batemans Bay, through Mogo down to Bimbimbie, much of the forest to the west had been burnt by the fires. There was decent re-growth of the larger trees but not a great deal of grass which made it pretty easy swing a detector. That said you had o keep your wits about you if the wind came up as there wee plenty of burnt out trees waiting to fall.
We spend three days visiting various mines and diggings in the area based on a combination of Doug Stones book and Geoscience Oz maps. We were hoping to cover different types of ground with the idea of learning as much as possible...though generally I think many of the sites raised more questions than they answered (but that's half the fun right!).
Based on a tip from the forum, we started at Waterfall Creek tunnel just north of Ross Ridge Road, it was a great place to start as the diggings were obvious event for a novice with piles of crushed quartz close to the Ross Ridge road and shallow diggings further in as you take Cpt163/2 Rd north towards waterfall creek. There were a few mine shafts to the right hand side of the road and one that was fenced off to the left of the road towards Kennedy's gully. Generally speaking when detecting close to the road we found patched of rubbish, spend bullets and can-slaw, though perhaps unsurprisingly on the shallow digging piled there was almost no rubbish, you could detect for 45min without a signal. Clearly the area has been popular with prospectors in the past but we still found some lead shot and a few tiny pickets to be found.
Going South off Ross Ridge road on Cpt162/3 Rd, there was more piles of quarts over a huge area, presumably there had been a stamper i the area?? or was this a dumping ground for processed material?...perhaps someone can shed light on this. Again close to the road and in specific areas there was some trash but further out in in the areas that appeared to have been surfaced (??) the signals were few and far between.
East of Mogo we tried to find Annettes Mine which was in the middle of an area that had been logged, so the ground had been turned up so much that it was difficult to find clear evidence of mining activity other than the sing mine shaft we cam across. We did some detecting along the logging road, but had no luck with one 1-2 target between us. We also tried (and failed) to find Kings mine in the same area, but unfortunately were forced to backtrack on a 4WD-only section of Mitchells Road after finding the bridge onto Tomakin Rd was under construction.
The area around Fullertons Reef and Greens Claim was steep! We parked near the water tank on Mills Fishing Road and walked south down a steep dirt road, there were some signs of crushed quartz but not a great deal. Most of the ground was some type of clay/shale (I'm no geologist) that didn't look like obvious gold-baring ground, but we swung the detectors anyway. off the road were were basically no signals in 90min of low and slow detecting. I'm not sure if the fires reached this area, though the trees were somewhat sparse from logging, as we walked down the hill the vegetation got thicker to the point where swinging a detector became impossible and no doubt there were snakes waiting for us.
The Bimbimbie gold mine south west of Mogo was very interesting, we approached on Bimbimbie road which was in ok codition, but the last section on Kellys road was very rough 4WD-only (we had a 4WD and ended up backtracking onto Bimbimbie Rd it was that bad). The soil was much sandier in this area, lots of crushed quartz mounds, and a series of 8-9 mine shaft some that were filled with water. A very interesting place to explore though we didn't find the closed of drive into the side of the hill. We found a few lead shot in the area around the quartz piles, but again the ground seemed relatively clear of targets. This area had been burned pretty well, so the ground was easy swinging in September, that said I imagine the areas around the quartz piles would be pretty clear even before the fires as there was little debris.
The second time we visited the Mogo area in November we could already see a big difference in the vegetation, the good rain and warmer weather has clearly boosted the undergrowth with tall grasses making it difficult get into places that were mostly clear in September.
In November we did explore a little more around Waterfall Creek as it was the only place we'd have luck finding any gold, but I think I'll leave the details for another post as this one is already way too long.
As I said I hope to post some photos of the area once I've gotten up to 10 posts.
Keep in mind my mate and I are pretty new to gold detecting and our first trip to Mogo was my first outing with a new SDC2300, so the purpose of the trip was to take the theory we'd learned form books, maps, YouTube and this forum and try put it into practice. I anticipate doing a few posts outlining the things were saw/learned and questions that came up in the hope of passing on some info to others and perhaps getting some constructive feedback from the forum.
When I reach 10 post on the forum I'll post some photos of the areas we visited.
In September we found that if you draw a line on the map from Batemans Bay, through Mogo down to Bimbimbie, much of the forest to the west had been burnt by the fires. There was decent re-growth of the larger trees but not a great deal of grass which made it pretty easy swing a detector. That said you had o keep your wits about you if the wind came up as there wee plenty of burnt out trees waiting to fall.
We spend three days visiting various mines and diggings in the area based on a combination of Doug Stones book and Geoscience Oz maps. We were hoping to cover different types of ground with the idea of learning as much as possible...though generally I think many of the sites raised more questions than they answered (but that's half the fun right!).
Based on a tip from the forum, we started at Waterfall Creek tunnel just north of Ross Ridge Road, it was a great place to start as the diggings were obvious event for a novice with piles of crushed quartz close to the Ross Ridge road and shallow diggings further in as you take Cpt163/2 Rd north towards waterfall creek. There were a few mine shafts to the right hand side of the road and one that was fenced off to the left of the road towards Kennedy's gully. Generally speaking when detecting close to the road we found patched of rubbish, spend bullets and can-slaw, though perhaps unsurprisingly on the shallow digging piled there was almost no rubbish, you could detect for 45min without a signal. Clearly the area has been popular with prospectors in the past but we still found some lead shot and a few tiny pickets to be found.
Going South off Ross Ridge road on Cpt162/3 Rd, there was more piles of quarts over a huge area, presumably there had been a stamper i the area?? or was this a dumping ground for processed material?...perhaps someone can shed light on this. Again close to the road and in specific areas there was some trash but further out in in the areas that appeared to have been surfaced (??) the signals were few and far between.
East of Mogo we tried to find Annettes Mine which was in the middle of an area that had been logged, so the ground had been turned up so much that it was difficult to find clear evidence of mining activity other than the sing mine shaft we cam across. We did some detecting along the logging road, but had no luck with one 1-2 target between us. We also tried (and failed) to find Kings mine in the same area, but unfortunately were forced to backtrack on a 4WD-only section of Mitchells Road after finding the bridge onto Tomakin Rd was under construction.
The area around Fullertons Reef and Greens Claim was steep! We parked near the water tank on Mills Fishing Road and walked south down a steep dirt road, there were some signs of crushed quartz but not a great deal. Most of the ground was some type of clay/shale (I'm no geologist) that didn't look like obvious gold-baring ground, but we swung the detectors anyway. off the road were were basically no signals in 90min of low and slow detecting. I'm not sure if the fires reached this area, though the trees were somewhat sparse from logging, as we walked down the hill the vegetation got thicker to the point where swinging a detector became impossible and no doubt there were snakes waiting for us.
The Bimbimbie gold mine south west of Mogo was very interesting, we approached on Bimbimbie road which was in ok codition, but the last section on Kellys road was very rough 4WD-only (we had a 4WD and ended up backtracking onto Bimbimbie Rd it was that bad). The soil was much sandier in this area, lots of crushed quartz mounds, and a series of 8-9 mine shaft some that were filled with water. A very interesting place to explore though we didn't find the closed of drive into the side of the hill. We found a few lead shot in the area around the quartz piles, but again the ground seemed relatively clear of targets. This area had been burned pretty well, so the ground was easy swinging in September, that said I imagine the areas around the quartz piles would be pretty clear even before the fires as there was little debris.
The second time we visited the Mogo area in November we could already see a big difference in the vegetation, the good rain and warmer weather has clearly boosted the undergrowth with tall grasses making it difficult get into places that were mostly clear in September.
In November we did explore a little more around Waterfall Creek as it was the only place we'd have luck finding any gold, but I think I'll leave the details for another post as this one is already way too long.
As I said I hope to post some photos of the area once I've gotten up to 10 posts.
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During our second trip to Mogo in November 2020 we decided to explore the waterfall creek area a little more as wed found 4 little pickers in the shallow diggings down Cpt163/2 Rd. We spent a good 4 hours in the morning detecting those diggings and another 3-4 hours after lunch. We both covered the ground with our SDC2300s and were methodical, scarping the ground nice and low and slow. We were running our machines noise cancelled, ground balanced, sensitivity 4, threshold between 5-7.
In the 7-8 hours of detecting the diggings we came up empty handed with only half a dozen or so targets e.g tiny foil/cans pieces, led shot and wire. Im not sure how common this is but when you go for 60min without a target, you start second guessing yourself is the machine working? am I loosing concentrating? Is the gold too small and just too deep for us to pick up? Is there any gold left?.
Wed talk over lunch and console ourselves with the fact that we were finding tiny pieces of rubbish which told us our machines and ears we tuned in and it was just a matter of time till we walked over another picker. I think the thing that drove us a little crazy was that on our first trip in September we didnt find any gold in the morning, but after lunch we found all 4 pickers in the same general area in the space of about 3 hours, most were about 4-6 inches deep and weigh about 0.1g each.
To try test the idea that the gold may be too small and just too deep for us to pick up, we went to a small area where there were no target and tried raking the test area and taking off the top 2 inched of gravel. When we went over the raked area we picked up a piece of lead shot, it was a faint sound, but couldn't miss it. We tried 2-3 other areas doing the same raking test but didnt uncover any other targets.
We also dug 3 test holes at about 6 inches each, one had a 0.15gram piece of gold, one a lead shot and the third a lead shot. We used this test setup to try work out the depth limits of our detectors in the ground conditions. We also tested different sensitivity/threshold combinations to gauge threshold stability and sensitivity. We found that sensitivity 4, threshold 6 gave us the best compromise between sensitivity and signal stability and while the gold and lead shot were detectable (albeit faint) at 6 inches, the lead shot was almost lost in the noise (sounded better on sensitivity 5, but you might miss it if you werent concentrating).
Based on our experiences and tests we walked away concluding that:
As a side note, in November the cicadas we loud....very, very loud! during lunch after taking off our detector headphones we had to wear ear plugs the noise was so bad. It was also 33 degrees, humid and completely still in the forest so we were sweating and drinking the whole day.
Surprisingly we didnt see a single snake, but then again there was very little animal life at all, seems like the area is going to take some time to recover from the fires.
In the 7-8 hours of detecting the diggings we came up empty handed with only half a dozen or so targets e.g tiny foil/cans pieces, led shot and wire. Im not sure how common this is but when you go for 60min without a target, you start second guessing yourself is the machine working? am I loosing concentrating? Is the gold too small and just too deep for us to pick up? Is there any gold left?.
Wed talk over lunch and console ourselves with the fact that we were finding tiny pieces of rubbish which told us our machines and ears we tuned in and it was just a matter of time till we walked over another picker. I think the thing that drove us a little crazy was that on our first trip in September we didnt find any gold in the morning, but after lunch we found all 4 pickers in the same general area in the space of about 3 hours, most were about 4-6 inches deep and weigh about 0.1g each.
To try test the idea that the gold may be too small and just too deep for us to pick up, we went to a small area where there were no target and tried raking the test area and taking off the top 2 inched of gravel. When we went over the raked area we picked up a piece of lead shot, it was a faint sound, but couldn't miss it. We tried 2-3 other areas doing the same raking test but didnt uncover any other targets.
We also dug 3 test holes at about 6 inches each, one had a 0.15gram piece of gold, one a lead shot and the third a lead shot. We used this test setup to try work out the depth limits of our detectors in the ground conditions. We also tested different sensitivity/threshold combinations to gauge threshold stability and sensitivity. We found that sensitivity 4, threshold 6 gave us the best compromise between sensitivity and signal stability and while the gold and lead shot were detectable (albeit faint) at 6 inches, the lead shot was almost lost in the noise (sounded better on sensitivity 5, but you might miss it if you werent concentrating).
Based on our experiences and tests we walked away concluding that:
- The area has been thoroughly detected [/*]
- Any gold in the area was likely sub-gram in size. [/*]
- The diggings likely have more gold, but its probably of a size and depth that our SDC2300s were unlikely to pick it up. [/*]
- We probably need more practice. [/*]
As a side note, in November the cicadas we loud....very, very loud! during lunch after taking off our detector headphones we had to wear ear plugs the noise was so bad. It was also 33 degrees, humid and completely still in the forest so we were sweating and drinking the whole day.
Surprisingly we didnt see a single snake, but then again there was very little animal life at all, seems like the area is going to take some time to recover from the fires.
I'd like to commend the very high standards you're setting in both your approach to prospecting and your interesting postings here, Turkey. :Y:
For such a newbie it's amazing to see and I'm hoping that the deserved rewards will soon follow for both you and your mate. :rainbow:
ickshovel: :goldnugget:
For such a newbie it's amazing to see and I'm hoping that the deserved rewards will soon follow for both you and your mate. :rainbow:
ickshovel: :goldnugget:
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We found that if you follow Cpt163/2 Rd past the diggings and down a slope you eventually get to Waterfall Creek and a slight clearing that looks like a campsite (there had been burnt trees fall across the road, so if you camp here, you might want to take a chainsaw just in case).
In November the undergrowth was getting pretty thick and we had to do some bush-bashing get to the creek bed. Even though there had been a lot of rain in prior weeks, the creek was mostly dry (porous ground maybe?).
The creek was mostly light sands, water worn rocks and some exposed decomposing bedrock with some signs of crevicing activity. We ran the detectors over the bedrock, some of which was very dark red and gave a promising signal until the rock was moved then the signal dissipated (hotrocks I assume).
We explored up stream (roughly west) until we came upon a tributary, most likely Kennedy's gully, we followed the gully for 30m and found another patch of shallow diggings on the eastern side of the gully similar to where we'd previous been but seemingly more isolated because of the thick undergrowth surrounding the area (though the diggings themselves were mostly clear to swing the detector).
Can't have been too isolated though as I quickly found two badly decomposed AA batteries. Took us about 2 hours to go over the area. We found more lead shot and pieces of iron and wire, indicating the area had not been as heavy detected as the previous site, but again no gold was found.
We'd previously done some detecting on the quartz piles on Cpt162/3 Rd (on the eastern side of the road), but we'd failed to see the signs of surfacing which is listed in the Doug Stone book. I guess we were distracted by the quartz piles as the surfaced area (red/orange hard clay) was just on the western side of Cpt162/3 Rd. You could see that water had been traveling over the hard clay layer with loose gravel being washed over the top. It was the type of ground where you thought if gold had been washed over the top or become stuck in a gutter it wouldn't have been able to lodge itself too deep in the ground. We spend 2 hours detecting here thinking the different ground type might provide a different outcome. Again, we found wire and lead shot sitting on top of the clay layer (I.e., all surface targets), but no gold.
We followed Cpt162/3 Rd south for a few hundred meters and walked off the road, down hill to the west where we could see more quartz mullock heaps and some exposed red clay. It was a slow start closer to the road, but as I walked down hill the targets became more frequent (mostly odd bits of melted metals slugs??) and unlike most other places we began seeing recent (1-2 years old??) detectorists holes that had not been filled in. The higher the density of unfilled holes the more rubbish Id find, when I started finding broken bottles, bricks, old tins I figured this was some kind of dumping area and decided to find quieter ground.
Having not had much luck in the Ross Ridge Rd area during the November trip, we thought wed check out Mogo Creek a few hundred meter west of Mogo town along Buckenbowra Rd. The area between the road and the creek had been logged and burned. The lack of a tree canopy meant the undergrowth was very thick. Most of the ground between the road and the creek was covered in crushed quartz, we found some patched of ground close to the main road that were clear enough to swing a detector, but found almost no targets in what was a brief session. Luckily we found a dirt road that lead down to Mogo creek. As soon as we stepped onto the creek bed you could see evidence of recent prospecting with a handful of shallow test holes as we walked along the creek. As there was little exposed bedrock that we could see (mostly just sand and medium to large river rocks, including quartz), we decided not to detect on the creek but instead go home for a beer.
In November the undergrowth was getting pretty thick and we had to do some bush-bashing get to the creek bed. Even though there had been a lot of rain in prior weeks, the creek was mostly dry (porous ground maybe?).
The creek was mostly light sands, water worn rocks and some exposed decomposing bedrock with some signs of crevicing activity. We ran the detectors over the bedrock, some of which was very dark red and gave a promising signal until the rock was moved then the signal dissipated (hotrocks I assume).
We explored up stream (roughly west) until we came upon a tributary, most likely Kennedy's gully, we followed the gully for 30m and found another patch of shallow diggings on the eastern side of the gully similar to where we'd previous been but seemingly more isolated because of the thick undergrowth surrounding the area (though the diggings themselves were mostly clear to swing the detector).
Can't have been too isolated though as I quickly found two badly decomposed AA batteries. Took us about 2 hours to go over the area. We found more lead shot and pieces of iron and wire, indicating the area had not been as heavy detected as the previous site, but again no gold was found.
We'd previously done some detecting on the quartz piles on Cpt162/3 Rd (on the eastern side of the road), but we'd failed to see the signs of surfacing which is listed in the Doug Stone book. I guess we were distracted by the quartz piles as the surfaced area (red/orange hard clay) was just on the western side of Cpt162/3 Rd. You could see that water had been traveling over the hard clay layer with loose gravel being washed over the top. It was the type of ground where you thought if gold had been washed over the top or become stuck in a gutter it wouldn't have been able to lodge itself too deep in the ground. We spend 2 hours detecting here thinking the different ground type might provide a different outcome. Again, we found wire and lead shot sitting on top of the clay layer (I.e., all surface targets), but no gold.
We followed Cpt162/3 Rd south for a few hundred meters and walked off the road, down hill to the west where we could see more quartz mullock heaps and some exposed red clay. It was a slow start closer to the road, but as I walked down hill the targets became more frequent (mostly odd bits of melted metals slugs??) and unlike most other places we began seeing recent (1-2 years old??) detectorists holes that had not been filled in. The higher the density of unfilled holes the more rubbish Id find, when I started finding broken bottles, bricks, old tins I figured this was some kind of dumping area and decided to find quieter ground.
Having not had much luck in the Ross Ridge Rd area during the November trip, we thought wed check out Mogo Creek a few hundred meter west of Mogo town along Buckenbowra Rd. The area between the road and the creek had been logged and burned. The lack of a tree canopy meant the undergrowth was very thick. Most of the ground between the road and the creek was covered in crushed quartz, we found some patched of ground close to the main road that were clear enough to swing a detector, but found almost no targets in what was a brief session. Luckily we found a dirt road that lead down to Mogo creek. As soon as we stepped onto the creek bed you could see evidence of recent prospecting with a handful of shallow test holes as we walked along the creek. As there was little exposed bedrock that we could see (mostly just sand and medium to large river rocks, including quartz), we decided not to detect on the creek but instead go home for a beer.
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grubstake said:I'd like to commend the very high standards you're setting in both your approach to prospecting and your interesting postings here, Turkey. :Y:
For such a newbie it's amazing to see and I'm hoping that the deserved rewards will soon follow for both you and your mate. :rainbow:
Thanks for the encouragement grubstake and Detectist, Ive been a forum member for some time and have learned a lot from reading posts, just never had anything worthwhile to add till I started getting out in the field. Its the Biologist (and wanna-be Geologist) in me that can't help but break down a problem, gather information, form hypotheses and then test and repeat
I just hope I can contribute something positive to the prospecting community.- Joined
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I am not looking for GPS marks but have researched Doug Stone's book. I am going to Moruya for 2 weeks and want to check out Mogo Creek and Waterfall Creek and the other areas.
I have a Landcruiser Sahara so I can go into the State Forest also have the Fossicking Permit for the Sth Coast.
My gear is Gold Monster 1000, pans, pick, scrapers, and a medium sluice. Is it mainly detecting in the State Forest?
Thanks, Norm
I have a Landcruiser Sahara so I can go into the State Forest also have the Fossicking Permit for the Sth Coast.
My gear is Gold Monster 1000, pans, pick, scrapers, and a medium sluice. Is it mainly detecting in the State Forest?
Thanks, Norm
AndiCrew
EmbPunch
i think you need to take more equipment for this trip otherwise BEST OF LUCK :Y: :Y:
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