Western Creek was a bit of a let down. We spent 4 nights there and detected about 6 hours each day. We started with the areas recommended by Deb, the caretaker of the camping area , then concentrated on the sides of the eroded quartz reefs that dot the area. We covered a huge area of the property and to unskilled eyes like ours it looked amazing. A very large area of the property has been mined so the ground has been moved around but the virgin areas are obvious. The only area we couldn't try was the spot recommended by Lee, there was a washed out creek that would have required a bit of spade work just to get a bike or quad across and we had neither. It was a shame as it was obvious that no vehicle had been through there since the wet. We finished with a donut for our efforts. The majority of prospectors we talked to had also failed to find a spec and most had found gold there last year. Most were using 5000 and 4500 machines. One lady using a SDC2300 had been there for two weeks and had found one half gram nugget, a friend with them using a new 7000 had found a few small pieces. One guy using a new 7000 did find a 7oz and a couple of smaller nuggets before we got there, I was told he was going over the spots that produced last year. Deb told us that patience is the key and her husband who prospects semi professionally had gone 12 days without finding a spec, not real encouraging for people like us that are new to the area. I think if we went back there I would look at walking a few kms away from the access roads and trying my luck there but I would have to leave the missus at home to do that.
