Are we there yet?? Brewarrina is about a 10 hour drive. We stopped a few times for a break and shared the driving but it is still very draining on the body . We left around 5am and arrived just after 3pm .(and NO Silver, we didnt go to that side of town
)After a few quick hello's i had my nephew give me a guided tour around town ... 7 mins later.... i was off... Spent about 2 hours at the show ground till dark
Found sweet F A !.... The ground is like concrete. There are plenty of bottle caps and tabs off cans everywhere
That night( friday night) we had a bbq , i met more uncles , aunties , nephews , nieces ,brothers , sisters , cousins , dogs and cats than i could ever hope to remember . I then became known as either uncle or brotherinlaw . It was pretty confusing but felt very welcome . Very strong family community .
I got 2 really promising sounding leads .... 1) An old Chinese camp/ market site( on the property we were having the party at -80 acres along the Barwon river) and 2) the original mission.
There is a museum in town run by an 'uncle' that apparently is very informative in regard to the history of the area . I was hoping to learn and get info but unfortunately was closed when i went on saturday morning
There was a massive electrical storm friday night and plenty of heavy rain which turned the RED dirt roads/tracks into impossibly slippery bog holes.
Saturday morning( after the museum attempt ) was spent setting up for the party till after lunch. I then spent a couple of hours trying to follow the directions i was given and figure out where the Chinese camp was. It sounded straight forward ... But i couldnt find where they were talking about .
I went back out to the showground where i was told they had a pretty large fete a couple of weeks back.
When i got there , i first walked all around and put some thought into where would be the most likely places to search....
I cancelled out all but the last 4 bars,and I was off....
My first find was a sixpence
...
4x$1,4x$2,4x2c,9x1c , 2xhalf pennies ,the sixpence(1951) and this impressive looking junk jewellery locket and chain
( it didnt register on the detector ... I saw it shining in the grass as i walked over it, it actually still had a price tag on it ,$45)
I left when it got dark and went to join the party, had a great feed and enjoyed the whole atmosphere till around 11pm then went back to the house while the rest of half the town partied till dawn.
Sunday morning i went looking for that Chinese camp again... Someone even said 'you might even find a holey dollar out there' ... I went and saw the property owner to clarify directions but still couldnt find it, so after a couple of hours i went back to the showground again for a few hours .... Thats when i found it ... The ' Brewarrina Holey Dollar' that almost made my heart jump out of my chest...
4x$2,9x$1,8x2c,16x1c,1x half penny, 1xcopper ring, a club membership badge ... And the Holy Grail
A bloody brass eyelet out of a tarp... Had me going for a while though
I couldnt leave without looking around the old mission site, so spent the last couple of hours of daylight looking around. Was a huge area, wasnt sure how or where to start...
So i went straight to the barely visible remains of a huge house, and scoured all around the edges starting with the entrance pathway
1949 half penny , an engraved folded in half heart shaped pendent and what looks like a rock that screamed in the top end of the scale. Maybe its a meteorite? Not magnetic though
