WalnLiz
In remembrance, April 2024
Tibooburra is situated 351km from Broken Hill via the Silver City Highway. Until recently there was quite a bit of gravel road in these sections but now the full length is sealed and an easy drive, especially for those with caravans or trailers. The goldfields start in the south at Milparinka where the rich Mount Brown gold deposits yielded some of the largest nuggets from the whole region. The best I've witnessed personally from there was a nice 6oz slug unearthed by a friend. It was our place of choice back in the day but is now off limits to prospectors. The town, or what is left of it is still worth a visit as the museum has some great relics and goldfield information for the whole region.
The Tibooburra Field is made up of numerous interlocking deposits covering an enormous amount of ground. Just up the road is the New Bendigo Field which unfortunately is now under a mining lease and as such off limits to prospectors. To the left of these is the Mount Poole diggings and above them the Good Friday diggings which are now also under a mining lease so off bounds. From here the goldfield traverses the whole length of the Warratta Ranges up to the reef areas where the Pioneer, Rosemount, Elizabeth, and Phoenix mines proved to be the richest. There is still a stamp battery and old stone hut up there which is well worth a visit and accessible via Gum Vale station of which a mud map is available from the service station when you get your daily fossicking permit.
From here the goldfield still heads north to the top end of the Warratta Range and here you will find the German Gully and Evans Gully deposit. These were extremely rich in their hay day and still produce many small "nugglets" for those who put in the time. I'll say it here and probably repeat myself on many occasions during the thread...on the Tibooburra field you have to go "extremely low" and "extremely slow"...to the point of scraping your coil on the ground on all occasions. A centimetre or two above the ground on this field just doesn't cut it and you "will" walk over a lot of soft targets that will be gold. It is for this reason I highly recommend you pack a spare skid plate in your kit as the ground out here is very abrasive to your coil covers.
From here the goldfield crosses the Camerons Corner road and heads east to the Nuggety Gully and Tunnel Hill deposit. This was very rich for the old timers and still remains an area where it gives up gold consistently for the operators who go slow enough and scrape their coils. The surrounding hills are a source of many small patches and most come from shale covered hills devoid of the usual quartz strewn fields.
Heading east from here you will come to the Easter Monday Diggins which are just out
of the town of Tibooburra itself. This field is generally the first area most prospectors tend to visit because of its close proximity to the town itself. The field was extremely rich with surface gold and as such the whole area was worked with dry blowers by the old timers. With the use of a sturdy rake, and the will to rake down these mullock heaps, it is almost impossible to walk away without finding some of the thousands of small nuggets the old timers missed. Again.....low, slow and scrape the ground with your coil.
A friend of mine on our last trip out there raked down one such heap and worked it for 3 days netting him 14 grams of very small nuggets and detectable flakes. Some of the old dry blowers were not well maintained and threw out more than they captured. This field is extremely mineralized and unfortunately only the latest technology machines will be of use out here. VLF machines will drive you mad with ground noise and the numerous hot rocks the place is famous for. Gpx 4500, 5000, 6000, Z 7000 and SDC are by far your best bets.
The area surrounding Tibooburra is covered by a "common" area and this still produces gold but not anywhere in the numbers of the better known fields mentioned earlier. My advice to newcomers is work the known fields if you just want to have fun and take home a bit of gold for your efforts. If you want to get serious and possibly find a "Patch", then work the perimeters of these fields and the country joining these fields. That is where your bigger gold will be found, but be prepared to sometimes go days with no results. Either way the scenery, the abundant wild goats, emus, wedgetail eagles, Sturt's desert pea in flower and brilliant night sky's will be reward enough for those who venture into NSW's best known desert goldfield.
We ourselves hope to be back out there soon as because of COVID border closures we have spent the last three winters out there instead of our usual 3 month pilgrimage to the WA goldfields. We first visited the area 40 years ago and it still has the same drawcard now as it did way back then....It is hard not to fall in love with the place....good luck to all who venture out that way and may the gold gods be kind to you. Cheers Wal.
I inserted this video for those with a keen eye to see the type of terrane that the better nuggets come from.
Please note that most of the better nuggets come from shale slopes devoid of most quartz as is seen on the quartz strewn flats.
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