Snake Valley, Smythesdale, Happy Valley, Linton, Skipton areas information and questions

[Marauder]

probably best to hunt for a more off the beaten track area.

the nail i found was about as far away from the road as i went. basically to the edge of the old diggings. It looked like there was more further on, so i'll go further next time.

 

[graybeard77]

Hey fellas, I live right next to the Linton diggings. If ever you wanna meet up I'll show you around. I don't mind sharing. I'll even make you a latte' I've been all over the place at Linton and I so far I only found a 0.19 grammer here. I do know that there is GOLD here. A woman who ran the local milk bar used to weigh gold nuggets for the prospectors. The nuggets were in the above the one onz. category. In the end the bloke came in one day with an excited grin from one ear to the other claiming he finally struck it rich and never came came back. I can only guess from what she told me only last week (18th may 2017) that he must have found the mother lode, and has dug it all up or met with foul play. The woman sold the local milk bar over 2 years ago now, so I guess it's been several years now when this occurred.

Anyway, I've not had much luck so I went up near Castlemain/Maryborough area, just hopped out of the car, turned the GPX5000 on with the new 14x9 evo, took two or three swings and got a signal straight away. Never turning away any such signals in case it's junk I dug down about 2 inches and struck gold. Thought I'd show ya. Cleaned it with alberight (whatever ) looks fantastic. I feel sorry for the other prospectors who have left their holes and missed this one.God punishes those who leave open holes.............alex

 

[chris11330]

Best i've done at Linton was 18 months ago when i hit a 22 nugget patch in about 50 square metres on a slope just off a ridge. Nuggets weighed from 0.2 with the biggest being 1 gram. Spent about another 10 days there and have only got 3 more! But it is still out there and this one was very close to the track!

 

[graybeard77]

Best i've done at Linton was 18 months ago when i hit a 22 nugget patch in about 50 square metres on a slope just off a ridge. Nuggets weighed from 0.2 with the biggest being 1 gram. Spent about another 10 days there and have only got 3 more! But it is still out there and this one was very close to the track!

Well done Chris. Removing all the gold is like removing all your dandruff. You never get rid of 100% of it. There will always be some left behind. Unfortunately this is not a renewable resource. I nearly gave up on Linton that's why I tried Maryborough. I think I'll be trying Linton more often after hearing from the woman shop keeper at Linton, this time I'll try further inside the bush. It really is quite large..... I know. I got lost in there for 2 hrs once. Lucky that the area is 6km wide at the most.

 

[Dragon Man]

Just found this old thread.

I live in Snake Valley and have never found anything by either panning or detecting (except the usual horseshoes, nails, etc). I have even heavily scoured my own acres. BUT! 5 minutes down the road in Linton, 10 minutes to Scarsdale, and 10 minutes to Smythesdale and alluvial gold is easy pickings. Some small nuggets have also been recently found in Scarsdale.

Detecting is hard work in the forests around here (Linton, Scarsdale, Smythesdale), but some people still find the occasional small nuggets.
To my knowledge there is only 1 active private small scale mine still being worked in this area but I don't know if it is paying. The owner doesn't talk :|

In this whole area Linton seems to give the best results panning.
But I have better results in Nerrina and Creswick so I go there.

 

[Detrack]

 

[Dragon Man]

Yep, those Maps are of the Linton Forest. We find small amounts in there.
My son and I often pan the gullies with small returns, but at least it's something.

 

[Prospecting Marshall]

Plenty of mullock visible from the major roads through the area..

 

[Pogmahon]

Hi Detrack,

Curious as to where you got these map images you posted? the marked areas, are they your additions? or already on the map.

Cheers Graeme

 

[Redfin]

Memory Map.

 

[Pogmahon]

Redfin, Thanks for that

Graeme

 

[Zacktheobald]

Hey guys I found a nice 7 gram nugget out Linton there is still gold here just gotta keep on Persisting through all the junk we get along the way also found three other little ones weigh in at a .80

 

[Zacktheobald]

H

 

[Aimee Susol]

Epic Zach, your still proving its out there. I coming for a swing!

 

[diggit]

Well done folks

 

[Rossy]

Graybeard77, my parents owned that shop for 20 years and my mum and dad told me about this guy who found good gold. He showed them some of it. So its true.

 

[Ward69]

Graybeard77, my parents owned that shop for 20 years and my mum and dad told me about this guy who found good gold. He showed them some of it. So its true.

Ha Rossy. I was born at Snake Valley next to white church about 200 meters from the pub I think the old house has lots of roses around it now. Gee. Thats 50 years ago.

 

[Graybeard]

Graybeard77, my parents owned that shop for 20 years and my mum and dad told me about this guy who found good gold. He showed them some of it. So its true.

Hi Rossy, I just read your post. The shop keeper at the Linton shop plays bowls at the seniors club here and I see her once a week. She recently sold the shop and now comes in to play bowls.
Her name is Chris. She kept telling me stories about some old bloke who kept coming into her shop to weigh his nuggets on a regular basis. One day he came in with a grin from ear to ear and said he had found the mother lode. He never showed up again. I guess it must have been a million dollar nugget !!

I only wish I knew the exact spot, I only live a couple of Kms from the gold fields. I don't mind combing the soil for crumbs. Lately the pickings have dried up for me.
Found zilch since summer. Did the bloke mention roughly where he was prospecting ????

 

[Buck11]

Hey guys. So my relatives have 10 acres out in snake valley and have some old workings all around the property along with some miner hut remains. There is an old seasonal creek that used to run through the property but can hardly even recognise it as a creek anymore. Im wanting to firstly have a crack at trying to find a a gold source with my Trusty pans and shovel. They have a massive dam on the property so with any lucky I can run my banker and come back on a later date with a detector. Any tips and suggestions as to how you would attack this situation trying to find a gold source? Ive taken one bucket home with me and found one pretty decent size spec but thats all. Cheers guys

 

[Teemore]

How awesome to have access to such a potential areas .....

Only thing to do, on the creek, or what was a creek is to test pan as many areas as possible to find the most "rewarding" area then put that area through your banker.

I'd be giving the old workings a going over with say an SD to start with .... then go up/down to a GPX/GM to get anything larger/smaller.

Good luck, sounds like fun to be had there.

Cheers T.