It Ain’t Half Hot Mum – in Moonambel

It’s Sunday the 15th of March and I am going to find gold. If you are bored with the repetitive nature of this blog then bugger off. Because it’s not going to have any broader scope than this – gold, Gold I tell you, GOLD!!!!!

Today Stu conjured up fried eggs, two spicy sausages and bacon on toast for breakfast. It keeps me going for the full day. The pub is fed water by a bore hole, so we can’t drink the tap water, but he leaves jugs of drinking water lying around within easy reach.

Back to Landsborough today and it was clear and sunny. I parked up on the main road again but the Reserve was a couple of miles away. A slog with my gear and long, heavy trousers.

It took me an hour to get up to the Reserve and I decided to head eastwards, along the low line of the hills, towards some old gold workings.

These areas have been detected probably hundreds of times. I didn’t find anything. Nevertheless I am learning each trip. I know that these workings, in more remote areas, are well worth detecting around. And you never know. I might strike lucky.

I wandered around the gold workings, making my way gradually south westwards into the hills. I followed a dry gully and had three strong signals in succession. Three shotgun cartridges including one which hadn’t been detonated. I chucked it away. Be a bit painful if it went off in me trouser pocket!

There was clearly a lot of gold found here by the old timers in the 1850s, judging by the extent of the workings. It’s not only people who make workings. Ants do too but this revealed diddly squat.

This is a Puddling machine that horses drew around to separate fine gold from the clay. Apart from the trees growing in the outer walkway it looked usable nowadays!

These features were on the lower slopes. I decided to head higher into the hills through the forest to see if I could find any quartz reefs on the surface that might contain (or have released) some gold.

It’s very isolated here. I haven’t seen anybody all day and I don’t think anyone would be here for anything other than sad Pommies popping over to try to teach the locals how to detect gold. And fail miserably. And some of these workings feel spookie.

I cut directly uphill, not too far from private land on the way up and I crossed it to take this shot towards where I was prospecting in the forest yesterday.

Nipping back into the Reserve I cut eastwards along the side of the hills to see if I could find any evidence of quartz reefs which might contain gold. Detecting along the way the only beeps were bullets from the old timers.

The heat was ratcheting up to over 30c and with no wind I was beginning to sink, as the sun decided to start doing the same.

Someone had been camping in the park and had left evidence of a fire. A bit risky in a forest of eucalyptus. Fire spreads here faster than you can run.

Tony the trainer had said that he often finds gold under this type of tree. Bully for him. I din’t.

So a long two mile slog carrying my gear and I was back at my car, straight to Moonambel and a couple of VB stubbies with spicy chicken strips. Asleep by eight. Knackered but not dejected. I will find gold.

Night night.