Not wanting to bore anyone with details of my everyday existence when I thought hang on there is something about me that is not normal something that most others don’t do. It’s not like I am a ground breaker or anything there are plenty others been doing it longer than me but I thought I would come clean and introduce myself as an amateur detectorist.
I cannot even claim to be a particularly good or successful detectorist but remain optimistic that will change. I am planning a gold detecting trip later in the month although that may be delayed or I go solo as my one legged detecting buddy has stump problems and may not be up to it. I am getting him to try some herbal remedies to fast track his recovery but we will see how that goes.
So for those interested I thought I might share some updates from the current research phase to the trip and of course the results good or bad.
Living in North Queensland gives us fairly easy access to some of Australia’s best producing goldfields. These areas were rushed by miners from all over the world in the 1870’s. This trip we plan to visit the Etheridge goldfield which encompasses a large area around the town of Georgetown. The area is predominantly cattle stations and some of them facilitate camping and detecting for a price.
During this research stage I use google maps loaded with old mine locations, reference books and maps detailing production, company reports and also geo maps that help identify fault lines, ground types and more than I understand. Generally for detecting you want to find areas that produced alluvial gold.
Once in the field looking for signs of Chinese mining areas (which rarely appear in official records) is usually a good sign for alluvial gold as the Chinese were not allowed to hard rock mine on Australian goldfields. Below photos show obvious signs of Chinese mining with the stacked rock walls. This photo is from America but is the same as what we typically find here.
Those interested in seeing some professionals operating in this part of the world check out some of these videos from Tremaine and Dale ‘The Goldhounds’. These guys go to extremes to find gold unlike myself rarely more than a couple of hours from the car fridge unless lost but they do get the rewards for their effort. ***Warning*** These guys are hardcore and often use inappropriate language.
