Tooloom, Tabulam, Drake, Clarence headwaters,Warwick,Thane, Glendon

[Levytag]

My missus has organised for us to visit her relos in Byron and Bribie. I wasn't that keen 'til I managed to hijack the holiday for a few days. on Tuesday we will drive thro Lismore, Casino and stay in a B&B in Tabulam (pop150). This is about fifteen minutes from Drake.

I'm quite new to this, in fact, as yet, I have never swung a detector. But my gpx5000 arrived yesterday and it has an aluminium travel case.

Just after Tabulam is Paddys Flat road which heads north to cross the Clarence. Before that crossing, I believe, there is a property called 'Lanikai' where the public can camp and have a go for the gold. I may have to pay twenty bucks (even though I aint camping there) and I will get to study my 5000 and wouldn't it be something if I could fluke a nugget?

Does anybody know this area and can give me a bit input if they know of any options. Possibly there is a detecting ground at the Paddys Flat road bridge. I tried to contact Brad on the other board... but that is quiet and not very interactive. This board does seem to be the place to have a dialogue. Brad, do you know of any place where I have a chance of detecting without getting a hole blown thro me?

On google maps I see the Clarence Wilderness Lodge which looks very goldie and a place I would liked to have stayed... but the people have closed it for a couple of weeks whilst they are quiet. Maybe I'll have a look at anyway and see if I could go back later.

Then is a drive north to Warwick and out to the Glendon campsite for one or two nights. The queenslanders talk this place up and maybe my first nugget is here. Is this place good for a detector? it looks like most people setup the highbankers here.

Any feedback will be well appreciated.

This is a good looking board and I see that it is frequented by the WalnLiz fella who's vids I have spent a lot of time on as I researched my new passion stuck here in Sydney.

So this is my first post - nine more to go before I get the Guernsey.

Competition: Anybody who replies within five minutes goes into the draw to win this 16oz nugget.

 

[Levytag]

I may even get as far as Gympie...

 

[the duck]

welcome aboard levy i dont know the area but make sure you get some settings and learn how to ground balance the 5000 before you go

 

[the duck]

Also look up how gold is formed you will want reef shed gold for your best chance at gold but they did drop some on the alluvial diggings and miss it around mine shafts

 

[Guest]

Hey Levy good to see you on board mate.

I don't know much about those areas except there is supposed to be some gold about & there's a nice pub @ Drake with some old bikes & heaps of old gold mining photo's. Last time I went thru I was heading to Lennox Head & we only stopped for lunch but it looks the goods? Hopefully someone that's played around up that way will reply shortly.

Good luck & enjoy the trip. Good time of year to be heading north.

 

[Levytag]

thanks Duck and Mbasko. I will make sure I have the groundballancing procedure down pat this evening.

When things settle for me, Mbasko, we'll catch up on your turf... hillendwindeyersofalawattleflat .

To the draw then. and the winner is (drum roll) Levytag post two.

 

[Heatho]

G'day and welcome aboard.

 

[aushunter]

Gudday Levytag,
First of all, welcome aboard, good to see you joined up.
Lennox Head, I did my apprenticeship as a chippy there many moons ago.
But you asked about the upper Clarence area, where can I start.
But before I do is the old timber structure of a bridge still intact at Tabulam, it is supposed to be the Worlds longest wooden structure in the southern hemisphere and I was there in 1974 when the floods actually was almost breaking the banks and if you have been there that bridge is one hell of structure for sure.
Pretty gully, I knew the owners before they turned it into a tourist thing and used to dredge in the gullies etc many moons ago, mostly fine gold, a bit of a poor mans field.
Paddys Flat, same sort of deal, fine gold, but I have found at least 8 good shafts in line up on one the ridges that hasn't seen a detector before so it could be promising for me.
Unfortunatly for others it is on Private property. Next up the road is Tooloom, good shotty gold but again on private property and myself have found it hard to be able to get access to dig there anymore. Further investigation by me to weather I can get access again. I was going to purchase 100 acres down there but never happened.
The Warwick area, Glendon is a good start, just scored myself a 2 grammer from the high banker the other day from dirt I got from one of the gullies up that way, so if you are into panning etc certainly get gold every time, but in saying that I have seen 3,4 ounce nuggies come out of there including a heap other Au mainly in 2 to 10 gram slugs from so called flogged ground.
I mainly work this area as I know I can access and the people that run it are also genuine and good hearted.
Well worth the visited and a stay, dogs are welcome and it is a good family orientated camp area.
I hope this will help, and good luck in your hunt for the yellow stuff.
Cheers
Brad....

 

[Levytag]

Thanks for that, Brad.

Sounds like the smarter move for me would be to just have one night at Tabulam, detect at Lanikai and then get up to Glendon for two nights.

and I'll take a pan and sieve..

cheers

 

[HeadsUp]

when you are travelling about there keep a lookout for any places where the odd miner or two may have buried his gold while he went in to town for the monthly rations or to visit the doctor or Mary's Special Hotel .

it was a hard life in those days with disease , accident , snakebite etc and it wouldnt surprise me if there were many old stashes of gold still buried in backyards , buried under floors of farm sheds , old shops and houses , or fallen through the floorboards of old assayers buildings.
If you see a man made rock wall it wont hurt to run your detector over those in case someone pulled out a few rocks and hid his stash in the middle of the wall too .

put yourself in the minds of the old timers . they couldnt carry it in their hip pocket everywhere they went , and there was a fair bit of not-misguided paranoia over theft so they would have come up with smart places to hide it.

its where you find it.

edited : to hide the secret code among the text revealing the location of captain blighs superannuation fund


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.

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not . but we all gotta dream

 

[Levytag]

We drove the hire car to the B&B in Tabulam. Great digs. A 150yearold settlers cottage with open fire and plenty of wood (google Chauvel Park). It will sleep up to eight and costs $120 for the night. I could live here. But we leave tomorrow because I believe that I have a better chance of finding my first nugget at Glendon Camping Site, Thane, just over the Qld border.
We drove up Paddys Flat road to the Clarence River crossing. It looks like highbanker territory. I was reminded of Wallaby Rocks on the Turon. The rocks are twice as high and the water flows ten times faster but the geology and vegetation are similar. I had a go at setting up the gpx5000 and I was encouraged that it was behaving as the one hundred youtube vids I have watched. The ground was gravelly, four wheel drive tracks and old campfires. Beercans in evidence and the detector going berserk. But I was happy with the test. I had settled down the detector and then found and dug up some metal.
On southern bank of the Clarence there were some curious 2metre concrete pyramids. Turns out they were part of the Brisbane Line of defence from the second world war. Early in the war, it was decided that the continent could not be defended and these obstacles would make it difficult for advancing tanks. In 1942 the yanks became involved and it was decided to upgrade the plan.

 

[xobazzip]

Hi there,

The Timbarra River and the Rocky River in that area are both known to be gold for alluvial gold and as they both FLOOD hugely there will be fresh deposits regularly also there are the famous Bulldog Run and Poverty Point areas near by

regards

 

[Sw1fty]

Welcome Levytag
Good luck on your trip.

 

[Guest]

Good luck at Glendon Levy! Hope your next update has a picture of your first nugget.

 

[Levytag]

Alas, no nuggets after a day and a half detecting at Glendon Camping site. Dozens of lead bullets, a nut, a bolt (which didn't fit the nut), wire, hot rocks, cans, .22 casings... all in my treasure bag.

No success and I even left my new pick behind.... (keep reading Brad Aushunter).

I stayed in the 'cottage' near the entrance and detected in the two gullies which rise above that area. There was some water in these gullies and that is unusual. Definate highbanker area and plenty of indication that people do this.

The 'roos at Glendon bound away when they first see you.... they bound away for dear life... then I started finding all the bullets and it made sense.

The camping site is predominantly a fourwheel drive and dirt-bike park. It is 2300acres and about 8kms across. Miles of tracks to get lost on..... Apart from that bullshit, it is a place I wouldha liked to get to know. But it is a long way from my home and I doubt I will be back there for a year... hence my pick stays there in the garage of the kiwi couple who run the place. They expect me to arrange for the pick to be picked up..... So Brad, I am gifting this pick to you. Say yes and call Jason and Andrea on 07 4667 4756. tell them that you are the new owner and let me know that you are doing this and I will call them to confirm this. This pick is a beauty from 'bluejeansronald' on ebay. I recommend these picks and I have just bought another for $70. Ron is a very experienced prospector from Grafton and has designed and cast these picks from great experience.

So. what now? I'll regroup around Sofala and try again to get this nugget-monkey of me back.

Levy

 

[Heatho]

Hi Levytag, listen for targets that are barely audible, most nuggets in flogged ground will be deeper and difficult to hear. I have no gold yet but I know my GPX pretty well, dig all targets but try and listen for the real subliminal signals, if it's repeatable it's worth investigating.

My 2c worth.

 

[Levytag]

Heatho, I chased some 'subliminal' targets. When I got such a signal I went over it time and again to confirm that it was real. Then I would remove any bush litter and then hear it again. Then I would scrape off 40mm of soil and the signal would get stronger and the removed soil would also signal. So I'd go a bit deeper and the hole might signal but not as strongly and the removed soil would signal stronger but not in any certain place. It seemed to be a general weakish signal from everywhere.. hole and all the soil which I sometimes put at different sides of the hole. It was 'kin frustrating to say the least.

At one hole I found two rocks that were giving signals (hot rocks). I basically had the gpx5000 on standard/general/normal/don't change a thing....

I regularly did the auto-tune, standing motionless with coil an inch above clear ground 'til I heard the three beeps. I did the ground balance up and down with button 'til quiet. On switch-on I let the detector warm up for a minute before I performed the above.

All of my rubbish signals were blanking. The only quieter target I found was a 3mm sliver of fence wire.... I tried to look on this as a success.

I'll press on, Heatho, thanks for your interest..

Levy

 

[Heatho]

Yeah I've had a similar thing where there was heaps of black sand at the beach. Sounds like you just need to walk over some gold, same here, finding lots of deep targets just wish the occasional 1 was yellow. Best of luck.

 

[aushunter]

Why thank you Levy,
But if I ever run into you, you will certainly get it back.
Its a shame you didn't get to find the gold stuff and certainly is there.
If I had known you where going to be out there I could of made a trip out and show you some real good spots.
A mate of mine just scored a nice 22 grammer and a few other nice looking slugs and I also met a fellow detectorist, who is a semi retire palentoligist who goes by the name of Kerry, he picked up a nice 3 grammer on the weekend.
But as you said earlier we have to share the land with 4wd'ERS and dirt bike riders and can be a bit of a worry sometimes and annoying trying to listen to the faint signals from the earth.
I will de heading out to Glendon for a weekender soon and I will see Jason, once again thank you.
Good luck on future hunts.
Cheers
Brad....

 

[Luke95]

Hi Brad, I was wondering if you could give me any pointers on the Tooloom area. I know you say its all private owned now and hard to get in to. I have done some ground work with some of the owners so ill see how that goes. once in the Tooloom river would you suggest any good places to do some banking? Malachite mines have said they were mining the alluvial gold from Joes gully until 2010 or something. im headed down there tomorrow morning early from Nerang to do some panning, have a look around maybe set up the banker.
any advice would greatly be appreciated.
Thanks
Luke

Gudday Levytag,
First of all, welcome aboard, good to see you joined up.
Lennox Head, I did my apprenticeship as a chippy there many moons ago.
But you asked about the upper Clarence area, where can I start.
But before I do is the old timber structure of a bridge still intact at Tabulam, it is supposed to be the Worlds longest wooden structure in the southern hemisphere and I was there in 1974 when the floods actually was almost breaking the banks and if you have been there that bridge is one hell of structure for sure.
Pretty gully, I knew the owners before they turned it into a tourist thing and used to dredge in the gullies etc many moons ago, mostly fine gold, a bit of a poor mans field.
Paddys Flat, same sort of deal, fine gold, but I have found at least 8 good shafts in line up on one the ridges that hasn't seen a detector before so it could be promising for me.
Unfortunatly for others it is on Private property. Next up the road is Tooloom, good shotty gold but again on private property and myself have found it hard to be able to get access to dig there anymore. Further investigation by me to weather I can get access again. I was going to purchase 100 acres down there but never happened.
The Warwick area, Glendon is a good start, just scored myself a 2 grammer from the high banker the other day from dirt I got from one of the gullies up that way, so if you are into panning etc certainly get gold every time, but in saying that I have seen 3,4 ounce nuggies come out of there including a heap other Au mainly in 2 to 10 gram slugs from so called flogged ground.
I mainly work this area as I know I can access and the people that run it are also genuine and good hearted.
Well worth the visited and a stay, dogs are welcome and it is a good family orientated camp area.
I hope this will help, and good luck in your hunt for the yellow stuff.
Cheers
Brad....