New hobby - gold panning

dazz

Downhill Dazz
After a visit to Sovereign Hill a while back I took the son out to the local creek as he wanted to see if we could find gold for real instead of panning it out of the creek in Sovereign Hill (they regularly put gold in it for the punters to find). I talked it down a fair bit saying it'll be a lot harder than it sounds, well bugger me we find gold straight away (don't get excited, it's only specs) and the young fella is hooked.

It combines his love for digging with finding treasure so it's not surprising he loves it.

Been heading out most weekends since and I'm really enjoying it too! The spots we go to are pretty nice places to spend a few quiet hours away from it all and spend some super valuable time with my boy while he still thinks I'm awesome. Finding a few bucks worth of gold is a bonus.

Equipment we're using is shovel, bucket, classifier, gold pan, a small river sluice, yabby pump and a few other small hand tools.

Anyone else get a bit of gold fever from time to time?


 
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moorey

call me Mia
Used to take my kids out panning in the Yarrawee and Slatey Creek regularly when they were younger. Much the same, only found a few specs, but they loved it. All that storm rain will have washed a bit in lately.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Talk about off topic of topic! If he loves digging so much, any chance he wants to lend a hand turning some dirt into gold around here? Some trails need some love and the dirt won't be wet for long...


Also well done on finding some gold!
 

dazz

Downhill Dazz
Talk about off topic of topic! If he loves digging so much, any chance he wants to lend a hand turning some dirt into gold around here? Some trails need some love and the dirt won't be wet for long...


Also well done on finding some gold!
Yeah he'd be up for that. He keeps breaking the handles off of all the kiddy tools we give him but he's still a bit of a loose cannon swinging the full sized stuff around... Thinking a small camping shovel would be the go for him.
 

dazz

Downhill Dazz
Used to take my kids out panning in the Yarrawee and Slatey Creek regularly when they were younger. Much the same, only found a few specs, but they loved it. All that storm rain will have washed a bit in lately.
Haha, lucky rangers didn't catch you in the Yarrowee...
 

Lazmo

Old and hopeless
Maybe 35 or more years ago, before it was made illegal... a good mate was a professional gold dredger. He'd spent half the the year up FNQ and half the year in Vic, usually on the Goulburn near Kevington. He had a big setup with hookah lines for diving. His camp was well off the road and only 4WD or my trusty VW Type 3 wagon could get there. My then girlfriend and I spent a lot of time up there helping out and just hanging around fishing or doing not much. He got quite a lot of gold and made a living at it for years. At the time, environmental issues, weren't even on our radar, duh.
 
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fatboyonabike

Captain oblivious
good fun hobby, but you are never going to get rich doing it...I used to do a fair bit of sapphire fossicking when I lived in Canberra..same same but different, once the bug bites, it's hard to shake
There is a guy on Youtube called Chris down your way, goes by the name Vo-gus prospecting, good honest guy, not a redneck like a lot of those types on YT..good way to loose a few hours lost down the rabbit hole
 

dazz

Downhill Dazz
good fun hobby, but you are never going to get rich doing it...I used to do a fair bit of sapphire fossicking when I lived in Canberra..same same but different, once the bug bites, it's hard to shake
There is a guy on Youtube called Chris down your way, goes by the name Vo-gus prospecting, good honest guy, not a redneck like a lot of those types on YT..good way to loose a few hours lost down the rabbit hole
No illusions of retiring early here mate. But the time spent with the young fella and seeing the smile on his face when he pans out a few specs of gold all on his own is pretty priceless!
I am getting into it a fair bit as well though which adds to the enjoyment.
Watched a few of Chris' vids, he's up in the north of the state. Levi's videos (Tassie Boys Prospecting) are pretty cool too! He's found a lot of gold and gets to some pretty amazing country in the Tassie wilderness.
 

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
Years ago while underwriting some ridiculous amount of commercial credit for some dude, we were trying to establish his source of income (you know to be able to pay the money back) ad this guy had no actual job.

He did however have lots of gold.

He obtained it through fossicking, panning etc. At first we were pretty dubious as it sounded dodge as, but this guy had extensive records of his trips, his finds, his sales etc.

Because we would not blindly decline a opportunity because funds didn't fit a classic income mould, We took a trip to his home to get more comfort around what he was telling us. The guy took us through his operations, and by George, the guy was litterally a mini fort Knox in the quantities of gold he'd amassed over a lifetime of hobby. We calculated in excess of 12M of gold in bullion and maybe another 1-2M in unprocessed stuff at the time.

Blown away by something the guy started as a hobby as a kid.

Needless to say, he never defaulted.

Anytime now somone says "I pan for gold" etc, I remember that guy and think about the potential anyone has to be a crazy old rich dude lol.

Hope you're having a blast, watch out for snakes :)
 

link1896

Mr Greenfield
My uncle took me out as a kid to his hidden, deep into the forest (probably National park, this would have been 1984) setup. Think I recall 5 others there shovelling away.

Floating rig in a creek. Petrol pump, home made washboard/sluice that I recall running along so it can’t have been small.

He drank and gambled away a lot of the profits, started a restaurant and went broke from there.
 

fatboyonabike

Captain oblivious
The gold you see on these TV shows is not from hard work, its the TV advertising and endorsements that make them rich!
Any old timer that tells you he has found a shitload of gold is lying, they are a very cagey lot and tell nobody.
And yes, watch out for snakes...one spot that I used to frequent (Grabben Gullen) had a resident RB Black snake, everybody knew where her lair was and left her alone.
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
The gold you see on these TV shows is not from hard work, its the TV advertising and endorsements that make them rich!
Any old timer that tells you he has found a shitload of gold is lying, they are a very cagey lot and tell nobody.
And yes, watch out for snakes...one spot that I used to frequent (Grabben Gullen) had a resident RB Black snake, everybody knew where her lair was and left her alone.
I knew an old bloke about 20 years ago that used to travel around Australia with metal detectors, I would prepare his car for the long trips and used to ask him if he ever found anything, and he would always reply saying "not much", then I would ask him why does he like doing it, and he would reply that he enjoys his own company. I would laugh at him sometimes because we both knew that he was lying, he had the best maintained VS commodore ute that I had ever seen, no expense spared.
 

Labcanary

One potato, two potato, click
Awesome stuff @dazz! Mini-Dazz might be a geologist in the making?

I've swung a cheap metal detector at playgrounds, found a few coins and a bunch of rubbish. I figure if anybody gets snippy about it I'll just show them all the junk I've picked up to dispose of properly.

My in-laws have an old gold mine on their farm (80m down though). Swung the detector there once or twice (above ground), but only ever found ferrous stuff that is most likely old farm equipment.

I'm yet to try panning. Apparently the pans you get now are very forgiving towards poor technique, and I'm certain I'd be a hack at it.

I assume you made your yabby pump?
 
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dazz

Downhill Dazz
Just bought a pump, wanted one for fishing anyways.

If you're thinking of giving panning a go, conditions are pretty ideal atm, Slaty Ck is running and the weather is nice. Not too hot, haven't seen a snake yet and apparently the wasps get bad in the creeks in the summer as well, so now is good.
 

Labcanary

One potato, two potato, click
Just bought a pump, wanted one for fishing anyways.

If you're thinking of giving panning a go, conditions are pretty ideal atm, Slaty Ck is running and the weather is nice. Not too hot, haven't seen a snake yet and apparently the wasps get bad in the creeks in the summer as well, so now is good.
You're doing well to find gold at Slaty creek. From what I gather it's a pretty popular haunt.
As @moorey said though, after all this rain there's going to be new deposits.
I might have to send Mr Canary out with Mr 5 as the toddler would be a handful to contain near water.
 

Labcanary

One potato, two potato, click
As @Cardy George knows, you have to hunt in the cracks.
For my jerks, it was always more about the activity than the gold. Good chance to get wet, dirty and frozen solid.
I think Mr 5 would prefer mid winter creek fossicking, I mean frolicking, too. Definitely Mr Canary's job then!
 
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