Buckland Valley nearly didnt make it but got there in the end!

[elbowgrease]

Well the weekend didn't go quite as planned. With the little man sick during the week with his first cold and still recovering, Saturday didn't happen at all. Shame with such nice weather too. Instead we did a day trip Sunday and even that didn't quite go as planned, only manage to finally get away just before 10am which meant we didn't arrive at Porpunkah till just after 12.

Beautiful part of the country but jesus that'd be a scary place to live if a bush fire was in the area. through the valley the few properties that are there are flanked either side by the mountains and dense bush be it for the bit of open paddocks immediately around them, braver people than me!

Drove all the way down till we reached the Buckland Junction. Stopped along the way a few times to check out various camp grounds, Ah Yeongs (or however its spelt) was very well equipped with bbq's and fire pits and right on the river side too. Got down to camp flat but it appears you need to cross the river there and I wasnt game to try it in the Subaru.

My question remains how does one go about finding gold in this area? I think I crossed over Murray or Fairley creek.. not sure which one as its not signed but it was closer to the Buckland Junction end (pretty sure it wasn't Dunphy or Wright creeks), and making it to the junction there is the Buckland Creek as well. I had a bit of a poke around in the two creeks that flow into the Buckland and from what I can see from research beforehand on Geovic there was plenty of historical mining activity in these areas, but I never found more than a tiny spec or two and the creek beds are bloody tight packed river stones which is near impossible to dig in!!!! Should have taken a pick and a crowbar LOL

All in all it was a beautiful day out, sun was out shining bright, nice and warm even standing in the chilly mountain water, got to have a play even though I didn't find much.

The wife has been invited to a camping trip there in a few weeks time by another one of the new mums in her mothers group so we'll be back there October for the weekend after the Grand Final so I can have another crack at the elusive yellow stuff!

 

[dirtyharry]

Elbogrease

I have checked out the Buckland valley recently for much the same result
Its hard to believe that there were so many people there during the 1800's
My guess is that all the easy gold has been taken out years ago by the dredges, sluices & Chinese
I wont return to the Buckland valley again when there are so many better areas nearby

Regards

Dirty Harry

 

[AtomRat]

Get yourself a point nosed shovel to break through that gravel

Got a photo showing ( not the location ) but a snap of what your digging in or a creek view?

 

[Bazz]

Hey AtomRat

Are you able to post the pic?

 

[elbowgrease]

Get yourself a point nosed shovel to break through that gravel

Got a photo showing ( not the location ) but a snap of what your digging in or a creek view?

Bloody stupid me never even got the camera phone out! The wife might have a few photos of the young fellas rolling around on the picnic blanket out on the river bank but I don't think that'll be terribly helpful LOL

I normally use the square ended post hole shovel as I find it does a better job scraping along bedrock, but I have a pointy noce post hole shovel as well which will definitely be going on the next trip.

 

[elbowgrease]

Elbogrease

I have checked out the Buckland valley recently for much the same result
Its hard to believe that there were so many people there during the 1800's
My guess is that all the easy gold has been taken out years ago by the dredges, sluices & Chinese
I wont return to the Buckland valley again when there are so many better areas nearby

Regards

Dirty Harry

Yeah I'm pretty unfamiliar with the area so I wouldn't really know where else to start looking! Got the camping trip out there in a few weeks time that the wife has organised so I'll give it at least one more crack. I dunno if the gold is deep or how far you need to go in the creek bed to reach bedrock but yeah certainly didn't have much success locating gold in any quantity worth chasing. Maybe 10 specs total for all the testing I did. Not even any black sand really. I'm pretty confident in know how and what to look for and do reasonably well Eldorado \ Beechworth way, but this is a totally different environment so it might not be so much as there is no gold, more so that I'm just not looking I for it in the right ways!!

 

[Parko]

Elbowgrease there's a great book on the Buckland called "The Buckland Valley Goldfield" by Diann Talbot and Andrew Swift (ISBN No. 0-9757170-0-6) Well worth a read and contains a few mud maps of the alluvial diggings and reef mines. Enough to get you going. Last time I was there the place was choked with balckberries so I only kicked a few rocks around the Junction, but that was about two years ago.

 

[jethro]

The thing with the Buckland Valley Goldfield is that the gold is very patchy but when you do get onto a patch it is normally pretty good course gold and doesnt take long to throw together a gram or so. Its the only place Ive managed to crack the gram mark for the day with the pan ( It was 2 grams from 3 double handfuls of blue clay wash from under a huge boulder. Ive also seen a 2grammer panned there. It got a lot harder to find a good crevice after the 03 bushfires as the whole riverbank on either side was covered in a layer of ash and charred soil to a depth of about 18 inches and you have to dig thruogh that layer to find old river wash. As I in an earlier post Its best to prospect the river in febuary march as the water is low then & warm enough to snorkle in working the crevises.