Hi All,
My partner and I are planning to do a little prospecting around Icy Creek in a couple of weeks time. We are both completely green - I think I tried panning once at Sovereign Hill as a kid, and my partner is probably similar levels of experience, but we are both outdoorsy hands on type people, and follow a lot of gold prospecting and similar YouTubers, so have a bit of knowledge/research behind us, just never put it to practice.
We have access to a creek (Specimen Creek) on family land that we are hoping will turn up something for us, as it has been recorded as producing gold in the 1860's, but at some point part of it was dammed in and a section of it we think was re-routed, so I'm not sure exactly where the original creek bed is or how accessible it will be.
The challenge we have is I have health and mobility issues (part-time wheelchair user) so that is going to create some barriers to where we can go and how much I can do. I think the plan is that my partner does a lot of the leg work while I sit back and scoop what he has collected into the sluice. Lol. We have a couple of small river sluices and will be getting a basic panning kit.
Any tips would be welcome! We know Tanjil River is off limits, and possibly the Latrobe River (we weren't sure from the exclusion list if it was the whole river or just part of it) but we were planning to stick to smaller creeks anyway.
*edited to add, we may end up living part time at this property for a period - if we do and want to spend a bit of time prospecting, is this area any good for detecting, or are we better sticking to panning and sluicing?
Our goal is to find enough gold (preferably on the actual property) to be worth giving to a jeweller or goldsmith to put towards wedding rings (I know we are going to need to supplement with other gold, but if we could find a gram or two to incorporate it would be fantastic, as the property is important to us).
Additionally, if anyone can point us in the right direction for getting gold processed so we can use it for jewellery, that would be fantastic too! We are based in Greensborough.
Thanks!
Sharon
My partner and I are planning to do a little prospecting around Icy Creek in a couple of weeks time. We are both completely green - I think I tried panning once at Sovereign Hill as a kid, and my partner is probably similar levels of experience, but we are both outdoorsy hands on type people, and follow a lot of gold prospecting and similar YouTubers, so have a bit of knowledge/research behind us, just never put it to practice.
We have access to a creek (Specimen Creek) on family land that we are hoping will turn up something for us, as it has been recorded as producing gold in the 1860's, but at some point part of it was dammed in and a section of it we think was re-routed, so I'm not sure exactly where the original creek bed is or how accessible it will be.
The challenge we have is I have health and mobility issues (part-time wheelchair user) so that is going to create some barriers to where we can go and how much I can do. I think the plan is that my partner does a lot of the leg work while I sit back and scoop what he has collected into the sluice. Lol. We have a couple of small river sluices and will be getting a basic panning kit.
Any tips would be welcome! We know Tanjil River is off limits, and possibly the Latrobe River (we weren't sure from the exclusion list if it was the whole river or just part of it) but we were planning to stick to smaller creeks anyway.
*edited to add, we may end up living part time at this property for a period - if we do and want to spend a bit of time prospecting, is this area any good for detecting, or are we better sticking to panning and sluicing?
Our goal is to find enough gold (preferably on the actual property) to be worth giving to a jeweller or goldsmith to put towards wedding rings (I know we are going to need to supplement with other gold, but if we could find a gram or two to incorporate it would be fantastic, as the property is important to us).
Additionally, if anyone can point us in the right direction for getting gold processed so we can use it for jewellery, that would be fantastic too! We are based in Greensborough.
Thanks!
Sharon
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