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hmm, thanks for the input. I am yet to experience highly mineralised ground giving a strong clean non Ferrous signal. Horseshoes make my GM scream maniacly and iron rich ground makes it swing both ways erratically. As I think I mentioned initially, the fine white cement was dead quiet for the...

Yeah I did run the coil across the narrow inner zone. Not much signal and what was there was not reliable. I saw no sign of iron mineralisation in the faces that were excavated, only on the ground exposed to rain and run off. Also, no signs of quartz veins penetrating the conglomerate, which led...

hmmm maybe but I wonder why the strong non ferrous signal?

LW, that sounds dire. I had not heard about the gazetted vs non gazetted, so thanks. Though I haven't done it to date, I figured jumping in at a road crossing was legal and I understood that freehold did not continue into the creek. Yeah this is a recipe for disaster. I guess I will just fossic...

Just got back from my first week away in far too long. Great time away, despite the very few specs of panned flour gold in the vial and zero nugs or speccies. After a bit of research I decided on trying a location, not hard to get to but not much visited by others I believe. First day was a...

I tried the eastern side last year as well as north of the river. It's seriously thick undergrowth. Lots of Hop bush, Dodda and in the "drier" areas Tea tree. The creek lines are probably the best bet with some waders until it dries out a bit.

Last time I checked in with Les he was wintering in WA. Far less undergrowth to contend with.

Thought this was worth a PSA. The NSW Department of Planning and Environment have a customer survey on people's experiences dealing with the Crown Lands Division. It closes Monday 10th April. I know some folk have had great support getting temporary fossicking permits but I personally have had...

Latest news in this debacle. I just got sent a request by crown lands to partake in a survey about their performance. I guess I should point out to them my request went in on September 4 2022 and haven't had any result from them yet. Hmm how should I assess their performance? Here is the survey...

Apparently they were worried they would miss their flight out of Launceston the following day. I reckon $500 between three backpackers is cheap for the convenience, maybe a grand would be a better surcharge.

Yeah we can all speculate till the cows come home but hey, some good points have been raised in the discussion whether they apply to these two fellas or not. Having a PLB is wise and using it does require discretion. Reminds me of a time when a mate at work came in on Monday with a story about...

As a young fella, I was given a few nice chunks of petrified wood collected from Wollongong beach by a guy from a Sydney gem club. He told me two things of interest - the rocks won't polish well because of the long period in saltwater leaving micro cavities and there is an offshore reef full of...

I have given up hope of my request ever getting onto somebodies desk. I am feeling pretty frustrated having put in many hours to work out where a fella with a two wheeler might be able to hike in to some viable areas. I guess I will have to start researching again for areas outside of Goulbern...

I have been looking through some heavy fines I brought home and panned these interesting pieces from them. They are all less than a millimeter across. The spheres are magnetic (magnetite or ilmenite maybe I really don't know). The crystals are pretty warn so shape is not that obvious but turning...

Right, so the methyl mercury gets into the food web at the microbial level and bioaccumulates, so on a completely different path to the metallic species. Good to know. Yeah I remember a lot of concern when there was talk of dredging Cooks River and Alexandria Canal because of the heavy metal...

Um I could be wrong but I think they use to mine Silver on the Ringarooma river in Tasmania and I am pretty sure they mined it by high pressure and volume water jets breaking up the old paleo deposits and sluicing the mud. But okay this shiny stuff probably metallic mercury not silver. It's only...

Okay thanks Goldierocks, point taken, no more catch and release. But removing tiny amounts of amalgam some possibly with methylated molecules and taking back home kinda sounds risky. I assume methyl mercury was the Minimata culprit in Japan. Don't really want to put myself or my family at risk...

Yes it is. There is a fair bit of harvesting activities at the mo which presents both opportunity and obstruction. A lot of turned over ground but at present a lot of forestry road closures making access not permitted.

Hmm, okay thanks. That's really helpful. Okay this stuff is not big enough to use fingers so I will try it with some forceps. Maybe the silvery stuff is mostly mercury and not solid metal, again I need to get out the forceps and mechanically test it. Sorry, my poor description re the gold...

Hoolly Doolly mate. It'll take me about 25 years at my current pace to collect enough amalgam to get an ingot that big. By that time my knees will have clapped out, my back will be cactus and I won't remember what that jar full of water and metallic bits is for. Of course if my memory wasn't too...