Gold Detecting, Fossicking and Prospecting in NSW. Information and questions.

[HeadsUp]

Interested in any weekend trips to areas within 3 hrs from sydney

I have a 4 x 4 and dont mind walking 4 - 8 hours if it gets me on to areas that might have gone without attention for a long time

any pointers at groups or clubs ?

 

[pauly250]

Hi pauly250
Any chance of uploading a scan of any pics of old and battered chinese water races in your book?
I find them fascinating things cheers Di

hey

I will find the book and give you the correct title as i think you would prefer to get a copy as it covers the region from Sutton in the north ,brindabella in the west,mongarlowe region in the east and down towards cooma on the south,mostly the years between 180-1920,s,has some awsome pics of dredges in action ,quite destructive eally,huge sluice boxes,and info on the families that operated them.

Pauly T

 

[WalnLiz]

Interested in any weekend trips to areas within 3 hrs from sydney

I have a 4 x 4 and dont mind walking 4 - 8 hours if it gets me on to areas that might have gone without attention for a long time

any pointers at groups or clubs ?

I'd probably look fairly closely at the Sofala region and in particular the Turon river....are you thinking detecting or sluicing..??? Check out some of the Lapidary clubs in the Sydney area as they usually hold monthly outings to nearby areas. Cheers wal.

 

[HeadsUp]

Interested in any weekend trips to areas within 3 hrs from sydney

I have a 4 x 4 and dont mind walking 4 - 8 hours if it gets me on to areas that might have gone without attention for a long time

any pointers at groups or clubs ?

I'd probably look fairly closely at the Sofala region and in particular the Turon river....are you thinking detecting or sluicing..??? Check out some of the Lapidary clubs in the Sydney area as they usually hold monthly outings to nearby areas. Cheers wal.

thanks . i would be detecting and sluicing , depends what the ground is like and what the nuggets want to do that day i guess :lol:

i have a few places in mind but they would suit younger people in fit condition who dont mind driving a few hours on firetrails and then walking for up to a day to get to spots that hopefully have not had any attention for 40 - 100 years or so.

i would like to attend meetings where more experienced members might say " dont bother - uncle ralph spent 3 months there back in '98" , or oganise some exploratory visits.

i understand that it might take 9 dud trips before getting one worthwhile but if you dont try you dont win.

 

[MichaelBrissy]

Thanks for the tip on the reserve at Mongarlowe Goldbug, i had detected in the area years ago with my parents and foiund my first piece of gold ever. They used to have access through a propert but those people have since moved on. Im going down from brissie in September so im going to go out for a look in the reserve.
Cheers
Michael

 

[Nugget]

[Topic moved, not sure what it was doing under events ]

 

[lshallperish]

Just going to list a few areas.

Penrith
Kurrajong
Springwood
Katoomba
Blackheath
Lithgow
Picton
Tahmoor
Bowral
Moss vale
Bargo
Blaxland
Bilpin
Linden
Lawson
berowra
Wollongong Area


If any of these names rings a bell, let me know please. I am trying to see how far I would need to travel to get a shot at panning. I will do more research as soon as I find a place that has gold. I have heard of many places you guys suggested but cutting the hours or even minutes from my hometown Fairfield to that area would be awesome.

I wish I can just go to Georges River and pan... Hell I wish I could pan anywhere in Sydney area but nooo.. that got me thinking.. why is it that gold is no where near city areas? Why is it that only places you can find gold is in some desert or forest? Some people will say "well it got mined out" but so did every other location that everyone goes too. There must be some geological reason that I dont know.

All the best guys and thanks for helping me once again.


Eray.

 

[backcreek]

Hay ISP,
The answer to your question is NO. You are going to have to widen your search.
The Sydney basin is commonly referred to as the barren basin as far as gold is concerned.
In general where you find coal you wont find gold but not always. Someone else may be able to explain why.
Have a look at this page. http://www.treasureenterprises.com/...old_prospecting_locations_new south wales.htm

Here's a good clickable map showing the gold occurances Australia wide.
http://www.ga.gov.au/image_cache/GA7655.pdf.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Mick

 

[lshallperish]

Thank you Mick.

 

[richard70au]

G'day ISP,

You can drive to Sofala in about 3 hours from Fairfield, there is also Hill End a little further along.

Probably the closest to those of us that live around Sydney.

 

[Diggerdude]

Mogo down near batemans bay has gold, that's reasonably close. Sunny Corner just over the range has gold too, that's probably the closest to Western Sydney.

DD

 

[Colin&Lee]

Not much Gold in the Sydney area this might help

http://www.resources.nsw.gov.au/geo...ta/1-500-000/sydney-1500-000-metallogenic-map

Cheers

C&L

 

[malau]

Hi All,

Instead of asking the members here individually I may just make a new post instead.

I would like to have you guys opinion regarding location of gold panning... here is the situation:

I've been:

• Oallen Ford few times got ok result (as least got something to show my friends).[/*]
• Went Hill End once, got a rice grin size sapphire, 1 sand grin of gold but the rail crossing is good for photo shooting when on the way back to sydney[/*]
• Tuena - first time gold panning but got nothing..[/*]
• Grabben Gullen - Heard from recent report seems good but never been there so dont know that area at all[/*]

I got sluice box and slieve. Going to pan on this Friday with my friend who never pan before. I will teach her (yes is a she, but is a good friend only) how to pan on that day. I am planning to do same day trip so not staying overnight.

So the question is, which location should I bring my friend if you were me? If you have other options outside the options above feel free to suggest. Apart from gold if can find some sapphire that would be nice too..

Thanks for your help

 

[Heatho]

Hi Malau, GG is the same as any other place, some days are better than others. We have found Sapphires and Zircons every time at GG, it takes a bit of practice to identify the Sapphire bearing wash layer and to centre the heavies it the sieves. There is Gold also but not much, surely should get a few small specks though.

You will need 1/4 inch and 1/8th inch sieves. Usually there are other people there on a weekend, nearly always forum members who are happy to offer advice. It's a very nice place also, great for a day out in the fresh air.

Watch some of WalnLiz's videos on Sapphire hunting, very valuable info there.

 

[slowflow]

Oallen will atleast put something in the pan & there are some pleasant spots.

 

[Redmanti]

@Malau,

You need to fit in some time with a more experienced prospector I think.

All those locations produce gold but I'd bet your technique is a problem.

I taught myself and wasted the first 3 trips in good locations with no results until I worked out what I was doing wrong. Mainly not using a pan correctly but mainly washing the wrong stuff in the creek to begin with. I'd bet you would get better results if you were panning the actual ancient wash layer. Turbopan helped a lot as well.

Oallen Ford I don't like at all as the gold to too fine.

Locations in NSW
https://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?...-32.805745,146.359863&spn=11.016744,14.128418
http://prospectingaustralia.com/forum/downloads/NSW_Gold_Google_Earth_Overlay.zip

 

[Chimpy]

G'day

Consider the Turon river if Hill End is on your list, you pass it on the way. Plenty of camping spots and fine/scale gold is relatively easy to find.
If you are not sure of your panning abilities, shave some tiny bits of lead off a fishing sinker and throw them in each pan you process. If you get them back each time you won't be losing any gold but if you lose a couple......time to do some more practice

Cheers

Chimpy

 

[malau]

@Malau,

You need to fit in some time with a more experienced prospector I think.

All those locations produce gold but I'd bet your technique is a problem.

I taught myself and wasted the first 3 trips in good locations with no results until I worked out what I was doing wrong. Mainly not using a pan correctly but mainly washing the wrong stuff in the creek to begin with. I'd bet you would get better results if you were panning the actual ancient wash layer. Turbopan helped a lot as well.

Oallen Ford I don't like at all as the gold to too fine.

Locations in NSW
https://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?...-32.805745,146.359863&spn=11.016744,14.128418
http://prospectingaustralia.com/forum/downloads/NSW_Gold_Google_Earth_Overlay.zip

I really would love to but sometimes is hard to get together due to other committment

Talking about Oallen Ford at this moment I should be ok in there and thats why I bring my friends to there for "training"...

I guess I also do the same mistake (washing the wrong stuff) like you ...

I have a turbopan and a sluice box. They work really well... I got 7 fine gold in 1 pan at Oallen ford before...

 

[Redmanti]

@Malau,

You need to fit in some time with a more experienced prospector I think.

All those locations produce gold but I'd bet your technique is a problem.

I taught myself and wasted the first 3 trips in good locations with no results until I worked out what I was doing wrong. Mainly not using a pan correctly but mainly washing the wrong stuff in the creek to begin with. I'd bet you would get better results if you were panning the actual ancient wash layer. Turbopan helped a lot as well.

Oallen Ford I don't like at all as the gold to too fine.

Locations in NSW
https://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?...-32.805745,146.359863&spn=11.016744,14.128418
http://prospectingaustralia.com/forum/downloads/NSW_Gold_Google_Earth_Overlay.zip

I really would love to but sometimes is hard to get together due to other committment

Talking about Oallen Ford at this moment I should be ok in there and thats why I bring my friends to there for "training"...

I guess I also do the same mistake (washing the wrong stuff) like you ...

I have a turbopan and a sluice box. They work really well... I got 7 fine gold in 1 pan at Oallen ford before...

I have noticed that there are three different ways us prospectors tackle an area.

1. Crevicers

2. Highbanking an area that floods. (Shivan especially is the Oallen fine flood gold expert) http://www.youtube.com/user/00Shivan00

3. Highbanking ancient river beds that involves deeper holes. (D'arcy Cooper)
D'arcy is Canadian and is great at working ancient alluvials http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBF1PAuX5OatmeJyzg2sTA

So most of us just hit an area for a day then head off so that's option 1 or 2 usually. I have formed the opinion is best to find fresh ground usually on the less famous locations and dig deep. Just don't go to the easy to access touristy spot on wash the tailings of the other 50 guys that did that spot before you.

If your on a good area, try and dig outside the creek igore the first few feet until you hit the wash layer which usually has pebbles and round stones.
Don't know how other guys feel but that's my opinion.

 

[malau]

Hi Redmanti,

Cool, thanks for that.

I will be heading to Turon river near Sofala tomorrow as my friend also wants to take some pics of small town (so do I)

My other friend will be off next wed so I may try GG and see hows going.