How to prospect an old creek bed atop a hill?

[mdv]

First of all, please excuse the photo - my brother-in-law prefers to shoot foxes rather than fossick for gold. This basalt hill (on private property) has an old creek bed on the top section that is full of rounded quartz pebbles (but few larger stones/boulders, at least at the surface in the area above the basalt stone piles) and there are a couple of sample holes right on top from the gold rush days. I ran my detector across the top part but did not detect anything other than the odd 'hot rock'.

Is there a recommended method for how to prospect this type of area? Should I try more detecting or should I takes samples for panning? Where should I start, and what direction should the search follow? Is the absence of anything larger than pebbles in this old creek bed a bad omen for gold? Thanks for any suggestions.

The current creek is about 250m away down the valley to the right and was a significant source of gold during the early gold rush years (late 1851 - 1860).

As an aside, this hill was used as a hideout by the Ribbon Gang (led by convict Ralph Entwistle, later hanged) in 1830, and later named 'Bushranger Hill'.

Regards,

Martin

 

[casper]

Hi MDV,

those sample holes that you mention were probably result from the ol'timers loaming efforts to track the source of the gold found in the creek. I gotta dash to work right away but if you search "loaming" on this site and follow the examples then that's the way to prospect the hill......

gotta dash ... casper

 

[WalnLiz]

If there's test holes from the old timers on the wash then I probably wouldn't expect there to be much in it . They were pretty diligent back in the day, and if they traced gold to that high level wash they would have certainly sunk down and bottomed out.

The lack of larger boulders indicates the main section of ancient stream was probably in a different location.

Cheers Wal.

 

[HeadsUp]

i would carefully detect the whole area in case the bushranger buried his gold there before being arrested and having his neck geometrically modified.

despite someone having already dug test holes , i would still do a few more pits or trenches . depends how much you like digging ?

not every old timer was successful

prospectors could have come there and then buggered off due to a prevalence of bushranger activity . lol

god knows mate , but i dont like to assume that all the gold is gone

have you searched minerals maps to see if they can refine the geology and help you narrow down the parts to look in ?

ps , if there are bigger rocks they might be a little deeper with those finer pebbles on top , but doing some exploratory trenches will tell you more .
its easy for me to say this as its not me doing the digging.

if pebbles are produced by larger rocks being eroded from hillsides and rolling down, being pounded , ground and abraded down hills until they become part of a river , and again until they become those small rounded polished pebbles and gravels in the river . i cant imagine that there would be only small pebbles with nothing larger in the same place unless there are other factors in that process i just dont understand yet ?

 

[loamer]

if this is an elevated creek bed it's a secondary gold deposit. The rounded pebbles are the give-away as you say. In the Victorian experience, these elevated creek beds are quite deep and not really condusive to prospecting today. You see them about the place, diggings on hills and the shafts are quite deep. they bottomed out and then got into the old alluvial gravels. Downslope may be interesting. If there was a quartz outcrop in-situ I would get interested as this could indicate a primary gold source and therefore quite close to or on the surface.This sounds very similar to the Gulgong NSW deposits - rich deep deposits under the basalt I think, either way, basalt is a good sign. The test holes may be a result of the old timers seeing what you are seeing and checking for depth etc. The slopes look very steep and if there is surface gold its probably dropped quite a distance.

Be interested to see how you go.

 

[mdv]

Hi All,

thanks for the feedback. Quite a bit of food for thought, next time I am out that way.

The pessimistic (or realist) part of me suggests that if there is nothing more than a couple of old-timer sample holes, then there was probably not much if any gold there. With that much alluvial gold to be won at that time, I expect the old-timers were very quick to move on to a new sample location if nothing found quickly.

I think Wal and Loamer have summed up the situation pretty well ... I think I'll look somewhere else.

 

[Roscoe]

MDV, This might sound a bit stupid, but is there any wombat holes or rabbit warrens on the side of the hill? If so they have done the test holes for you and it might be good to sample the dirt outside of their burrows? Just a thought

 

[mdv]

MDV, This might sound a bit stupid, but is there any wombat holes or rabbit warrens on the side of the hill? If so they have done the test holes for you and it might be good to sample the dirt outside of their burrows? Just a thought

Hi Roscoe,

Alas no wombat holes or rabbit holes anywhere near this spot. Wombats prefer the softer ground alongside the current creek (quite a distance away). No rabbits - refer to photo (pastoral pests are promptly despatched by solution .22).

When detecting near the creek, I usually have a quick look around wombat holes, more in hope than anything else.

Regards,

Martin.

 

[richo966]

I have heard that people will pan ant nests as they will bring things up from below not sure if this will work at least no digging

 

[Prospector B]

Mdv, I would have a good look and dig a few holes for what it is worth. Chances are there is nothing there but HeadsUp is right about the old timers, who knows why they left it. At least you would know if you had a look