- Joined
- Aug 28, 2015
- Messages
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Well another Hello from Logan Brisbane.
It would be remiss of me to talk about what I want to do now without talking (briefly) about my Journey with Gold....
It seems like another lifetime ago... and for some when I talk about events of 40 odd years ago... it is indeed two lifetimes...
Anyway I grew up in Melbourne and whilst I can't recall the exact year now, it doesn't matter anyway... Suffice to say that as part of our Australian History Studies we went on a school excursion to the site of the Eureka Stockade and Sovereign Hill, Ballarat.
One of our first activities was; we were given a tour and explanation of 'the diggings' and the operation of early Chinese windlasses, Cradles, Sluice boxes, etc, etc.
The culmination of this tour being given a pan of wash gravel- guaranteed to contain Gold. And then being set free in the diggings to find our fortune.
There was an old timer or two- staff in costume- in the creek to show those, who cared to ask, how to separate out those tiny, shiny; glimmers of Hope....
There were a number of other school groups in Sovereign Hill that day and I quickly realised that many, indeed most if not all of the pan washers were coming up empty handed- tipping their entire pans contents into the creek with the first big kaplonk....
My mind raced... There must be a freakin fortune in Gold... right there in front of me in that wash pond....
So, whilst the rest of my group went off and had their Wanted Posters made up- Photos in the Stockade or cracked a few teeth on the boiled sweets...
Well I dragged that there Cradle down into the waters edge and I shoveled pay dirt, and I bailed water and I rocked and rocked till the blisters on my hands bled... and I damn near wore those rockers out,,, until last call rang out...
Now one of the Old Timers quickly recognised my affliction and bless his heart because he did take me under his wing and carefully showed me how to properly clean out the concentrates from the cradle... remove and rinse the riffles and the green plastic grass matting, etc and carefully pan down to the GOLD!
WOW, WOW, WOW!
Needless to say, I was struck with the fever. Funnily enough I just moved house last year and you know I still have that little glass bottle... Oh, the labels have long since faded to black, but the bottle still contains the day's takings... I've never weighed it, but I'd reckon there'd be 6-8 grams, which was 300 times more than any one else's glass bottle and indeed more than enough to shape my life for the next 10-15 Years....
Well, I've clearly rattled on far too much already so I'll make this really brief...
Dredging was not yet outlawed so I used to fossick with a 3" Dredge and bring the 5" Bad Boy in when I was doing a production run. This was set up with full Hookah and a modified twin deck sluice and side wings.
My day job was building concrete swimming pools and this gave me access to 5 Tonne excavators and bobcats, etc as required.
The dredging led to running and operating an alluvial Gold Lease on the Lerderderg River, Obriens Crossing, Blackwood.
I was working at this mine when the young fellow, Mick rolled the 60 Tonne Hitachi Excavator off the causeway and was crushed/drowned in the cab. In fact I rebuilt the engine in that machine, on the side of the river and moved it out when the mine was shut down shortly after.
I'll skip a few steps and just mention that apart from building a few alluvial processing plants for clients such as BP Aust., etc and doing things like obtaining my explosives Licence and doing heaps of Geo Testing- including a stint at Harrietville including Alluvial Mud Punching, etc
There was also Commercial Tailings Processing at Creswick and getting a whole new mine up and running in Maryborough, Vic.
I went on and was Operations Manager for a Public Gold Mining Company for a couple of years.... Which amongst other things gave me access to the inner sanctum; Professional Prospectors, Funding, working with Geologists, Mining Engineers, Commercial Processing, Refining and Assaying, etc, etc....
It was all a hell of a ride and I loved, loved, loved every minute of it....
Somewhere about this time I fell and fell hard for a young wild redheaded lass, who had her feet well and truly planted in the ground and well what can I say but the Bell of 'Time Gentleman' from some random country pub... was replaced by the ring of wedding bells...
A family and three businesses later and well, here we are today...
I've managed to make and loose several (small) fortunes and frankly a few years ago I was embroiled in a Civil Legal Action, that was not of my doing- Just in the wrong place at the wrong time- I had just invested heavily in turning my humble trade business into a Franchise Organisation and my legal team misrepresented and under quoted my legal costs- in the Civil Matter- by a factor of 6.
This right here left me completely unable to fund a defence and so combined with a very, very aggressive Plaintiff that lied through their teeth and misused the Legal System in a completely vexatious manner... and well they simply bled us dry and proceeded to 'take us to the cleaners'... The Judgement against us is recorded as being one of the highest in Qld Precedent in matters of that particular type.
Such is Life...
Next...
The wild redhead is still wild and feisty as ever... Gotta love redheads!!
As for me, part of the fallout of the court case is that my Trade and Builders Licences have all been suspended for 5 Years...
So, after a lifetime away, I find myself back on an excavator and planning my next adventure...
I've got a few ideas, but it's too early to make them public...
In the meantime, I really need to supplement my modest income. Not to mention the erratic nature my income now has- wet days being all too frequent and unproductive.
So, what can't be taken away is my knowlege. (no Alzheimers- yet!- Touch Wood).
I understand Gold and I know where to look and how to find it.
Funny thing is, it matters not if you're looking for alluvial pockets in a river bed... or jewellery on the beach....
Gold will always behave in a certain manner and concentrate in a predictable way... if you understand what to look for and how to read the signs...
Everything I've ever seen, read and done has only ever confirmed this fact.
What I don't know and have very limited experience with, is metal detectors and their use in finding Gold.
So that's where I'm up to and what I'm about. I'm sure there will be areas where my experience will be able to assist others and I look forward to helping out wherever I can.
What I'm doing right now is selling a few smaller bits and pieces I still have, to fund the purchase of a good second hand CTX 3030. This beach work, etc will need to fund the next true Gold Detector, in due course.
Given my past dredging experience I want something that will work in shallow underwater conditions (I've seen the 12m O ring mod Vid by Frenchie) as well as good discrimination in trashy areas.
So that's me, thanks for reading through all my crap...
Talk Soon,
Andrew
It would be remiss of me to talk about what I want to do now without talking (briefly) about my Journey with Gold....
It seems like another lifetime ago... and for some when I talk about events of 40 odd years ago... it is indeed two lifetimes...
Anyway I grew up in Melbourne and whilst I can't recall the exact year now, it doesn't matter anyway... Suffice to say that as part of our Australian History Studies we went on a school excursion to the site of the Eureka Stockade and Sovereign Hill, Ballarat.
One of our first activities was; we were given a tour and explanation of 'the diggings' and the operation of early Chinese windlasses, Cradles, Sluice boxes, etc, etc.
The culmination of this tour being given a pan of wash gravel- guaranteed to contain Gold. And then being set free in the diggings to find our fortune.
There was an old timer or two- staff in costume- in the creek to show those, who cared to ask, how to separate out those tiny, shiny; glimmers of Hope....
There were a number of other school groups in Sovereign Hill that day and I quickly realised that many, indeed most if not all of the pan washers were coming up empty handed- tipping their entire pans contents into the creek with the first big kaplonk....
My mind raced... There must be a freakin fortune in Gold... right there in front of me in that wash pond....
So, whilst the rest of my group went off and had their Wanted Posters made up- Photos in the Stockade or cracked a few teeth on the boiled sweets...
Well I dragged that there Cradle down into the waters edge and I shoveled pay dirt, and I bailed water and I rocked and rocked till the blisters on my hands bled... and I damn near wore those rockers out,,, until last call rang out...
Now one of the Old Timers quickly recognised my affliction and bless his heart because he did take me under his wing and carefully showed me how to properly clean out the concentrates from the cradle... remove and rinse the riffles and the green plastic grass matting, etc and carefully pan down to the GOLD!
WOW, WOW, WOW!
Needless to say, I was struck with the fever. Funnily enough I just moved house last year and you know I still have that little glass bottle... Oh, the labels have long since faded to black, but the bottle still contains the day's takings... I've never weighed it, but I'd reckon there'd be 6-8 grams, which was 300 times more than any one else's glass bottle and indeed more than enough to shape my life for the next 10-15 Years....
Well, I've clearly rattled on far too much already so I'll make this really brief...
Dredging was not yet outlawed so I used to fossick with a 3" Dredge and bring the 5" Bad Boy in when I was doing a production run. This was set up with full Hookah and a modified twin deck sluice and side wings.
My day job was building concrete swimming pools and this gave me access to 5 Tonne excavators and bobcats, etc as required.
The dredging led to running and operating an alluvial Gold Lease on the Lerderderg River, Obriens Crossing, Blackwood.
I was working at this mine when the young fellow, Mick rolled the 60 Tonne Hitachi Excavator off the causeway and was crushed/drowned in the cab. In fact I rebuilt the engine in that machine, on the side of the river and moved it out when the mine was shut down shortly after.
I'll skip a few steps and just mention that apart from building a few alluvial processing plants for clients such as BP Aust., etc and doing things like obtaining my explosives Licence and doing heaps of Geo Testing- including a stint at Harrietville including Alluvial Mud Punching, etc
There was also Commercial Tailings Processing at Creswick and getting a whole new mine up and running in Maryborough, Vic.
I went on and was Operations Manager for a Public Gold Mining Company for a couple of years.... Which amongst other things gave me access to the inner sanctum; Professional Prospectors, Funding, working with Geologists, Mining Engineers, Commercial Processing, Refining and Assaying, etc, etc....
It was all a hell of a ride and I loved, loved, loved every minute of it....
Somewhere about this time I fell and fell hard for a young wild redheaded lass, who had her feet well and truly planted in the ground and well what can I say but the Bell of 'Time Gentleman' from some random country pub... was replaced by the ring of wedding bells...
A family and three businesses later and well, here we are today...
I've managed to make and loose several (small) fortunes and frankly a few years ago I was embroiled in a Civil Legal Action, that was not of my doing- Just in the wrong place at the wrong time- I had just invested heavily in turning my humble trade business into a Franchise Organisation and my legal team misrepresented and under quoted my legal costs- in the Civil Matter- by a factor of 6.
This right here left me completely unable to fund a defence and so combined with a very, very aggressive Plaintiff that lied through their teeth and misused the Legal System in a completely vexatious manner... and well they simply bled us dry and proceeded to 'take us to the cleaners'... The Judgement against us is recorded as being one of the highest in Qld Precedent in matters of that particular type.
Such is Life...
Next...
The wild redhead is still wild and feisty as ever... Gotta love redheads!!
As for me, part of the fallout of the court case is that my Trade and Builders Licences have all been suspended for 5 Years...
So, after a lifetime away, I find myself back on an excavator and planning my next adventure...
I've got a few ideas, but it's too early to make them public...
In the meantime, I really need to supplement my modest income. Not to mention the erratic nature my income now has- wet days being all too frequent and unproductive.
So, what can't be taken away is my knowlege. (no Alzheimers- yet!- Touch Wood).
I understand Gold and I know where to look and how to find it.
Funny thing is, it matters not if you're looking for alluvial pockets in a river bed... or jewellery on the beach....
Gold will always behave in a certain manner and concentrate in a predictable way... if you understand what to look for and how to read the signs...
Everything I've ever seen, read and done has only ever confirmed this fact.
What I don't know and have very limited experience with, is metal detectors and their use in finding Gold.
So that's where I'm up to and what I'm about. I'm sure there will be areas where my experience will be able to assist others and I look forward to helping out wherever I can.
What I'm doing right now is selling a few smaller bits and pieces I still have, to fund the purchase of a good second hand CTX 3030. This beach work, etc will need to fund the next true Gold Detector, in due course.
Given my past dredging experience I want something that will work in shallow underwater conditions (I've seen the 12m O ring mod Vid by Frenchie) as well as good discrimination in trashy areas.
So that's me, thanks for reading through all my crap...
Talk Soon,
Andrew
