Newbie from Canberra

[user 13194]

Hi all, I am from Canberra and have been into detecting for a few years (As a casual hobby), but now I am keen to try some prospecting.

I currently use a Bounty Hunter discovery 3500 - Very happy with this so far, was a great step up from the Ace 150. Very keen to go for a swing down on a property in Moruya that has plenty of quartz in the rocks.

I have just purchased some pans & required tools for looking for gold, and have almost finished building a simple sluice;

Made from marine plywood, not quite finished yet (Need to attach front ribbed matting) & the honeycomb/mesh is a temporary solution till I get some mesh that has larger openings. I am thinking of 8 x 16mm or 1/2"

This is a great forum, been reading over for weeks now & realised I need to sign up

Regards, Brad

 

[Eldorado]

Welcome Brad,sluice looks great mate.Where do you plan on testing the sluice out?Oallen maybe?

 

[user 13194]

Welcome Brad,sluice looks great mate.Where do you plan on testing the sluice out?Oallen maybe?

Pretty much anywhere within an 1.5hr drive from home. I have a heap of locations collected, and Shoalhaven river is one of them. Any further of a drive would require a tent and some beers

 

[87 Hilux]

G'day mate, when are you looking at heading out aand trying out your river sluice?

 

[Jaros]

Welcome Brad. :Y:

 

[user 13194]

G'day mate, when are you looking at heading out aand trying out your river sluice?

Hello Hilux. Will do some testing locally (not for gold, just to see if it works as desired) but I think I will be out looking for the gold when the weather is a bit warmer. I can only image how cold the rivers are at this time of year 8.(

 

[user 13194]

Welcome Brad. :Y:

Thanks Jaros

 

[DropBear]

Hey mate, go check out Bredbo also.

There are some spots up there that you can find some good gold.

Also. Welcome Canberra frennnnn haha

Let me jump on google maps and find a good spot for you. Do you have a 4x4?

 

[DropBear]

Old gold mine there, very interesting. There are some surrounding rivers i have found some good gold. But it can be hit and miss. Very enjoyable to go out there and just explore.

 

[DropBear]

Cowra Creek, just below that mine. Have fun and let us know if you do well or not.

From memory there are gem stones there also.

 

[user 13194]

Cowra Creek, just below that mine. Have fun and let us know if you do well or not.

From memory there are gem stones there also.

Hi DropBear - Thanks for that.
No 4x4 in my hands unfortunately, I have about 8 locations within 1-2hrs drive to check out that are notable rivers though.

Most certainly will post results if anything is found

Would you agree that after heavy rain even the usually picked areas could have fresh gold that has made its way down? Cheers

 

[87 Hilux]

G'day mate, when are you looking at heading out aand trying out your river sluice?

Hello Hilux. Will do some testing locally (not for gold, just to see if it works as desired) but I think I will be out looking for the gold when the weather is a bit warmer. I can only image how cold the rivers are at this time of year 8.(

No worries at all mate, I have just moved back to the nations capital for work. I did growup there and I am going to head out on the Shoalhaven next week for pan and river sluice.

 

[user 13194]

G'day mate, when are you looking at heading out aand trying out your river sluice?

Hello Hilux. Will do some testing locally (not for gold, just to see if it works as desired) but I think I will be out looking for the gold when the weather is a bit warmer. I can only image how cold the rivers are at this time of year 8.(

No worries at all mate, I have just moved back to the nations capital for work. I did growup there and I am going to head out on the Shoalhaven next week for pan and river sluice.

Oh very nice welcome back. Would you be going on a weekend? I could definitely fit that in sometime if the calendar has a spare weekend day

 

[87 Hilux]

Maybe next weekend, or during the week sometime. I will let you know either way mate.

 

[DropBear]

heavy rains = fresh ground

 

[Nomadz]

Welcome Brad,sluice looks great mate.Where do you plan on testing the sluice out?Oallen maybe?

Pretty much anywhere within an 1.5hr drive from home. I have a heap of locations collected, and Shoalhaven river is one of them. Any further of a drive would require a tent and some beers

Welcome...good to see another Canberra person active on here.....

 

[user 13194]

So the sluice was tested locally - Even with the temporary small mesh and honeycomb it seemed to work well. Flow went over nicely and picked up a bit of black sand which is promising. Might even keep honeycomb part and just get a larger mesh for the back end :Y:

 

[pete165]

Welcome to the forum Brad. :Y:

 

[user 13194]

Welcome to the forum Brad. :Y:

Thanks Pete

We are going to do some more local testing of the gear and when we know everything works as expected, head to a gold producing river

I did purchase the plastic/rubber bucket with handles and the garden sieve from Bunnings ($14 for both!). This should help out with classifying

 

[user 13194]

First time finding gold! Not far from home either.

Most of that was from 3 pans yesterday.