Nerrigundah - detecting, panning and crop discovery

[BourndaBoy]

A Mate has recently got back into prospecting and decided to drag me out as well in the Nerrigundah area.
Up early Saturday morning for the 2 hour drive up the coast we went. I was set on a days crevicing and my mate had a loan of a SDC2300 and hit up the North creek area after a bit of a tip off from some people in the know. We parked the car on a small pad on the side of the road close to the river, we decided after seeing the terrain that we both were in no fit state to be trying to attempt anything to strenuous. kitted up and ready for anything we split up and took a direction each of the river, I went town stream. My trip south ended quiet abruptly as about half a km or so searching for a bedrock show I stumbled across a not so hidden garden bed! Unfortunately I had not hit the mother lode I was after, 3 x 6ft skeletons were all that remained and that a lot of very fresh looking foot prints in the earth below. I was out of there!
After meeting back up at the car we focussed on the upstream areas, plenty of interesting relics show faint tells of past working all along the banks of the river. After some walk I was able to find some attractive spots to focus on with the pan and was able to find a speck around a mm round in the very first pan. After sharing the new with my buddy we both focussed on the pans and after an hour or 2 we had 10 in the snuffer. I found it interesting we did not find any super fine gold all was I the 1mm plus size, best being a small ribbon of around 3mm deep within a crevice. Initially I suspected it my have been operator error with the pan but after slowing things down on half a dozen pans nothing seemed to change.
In all we spent 6 hours on the pan and detector with the pan getting all our finds for the day. It was great to get back out there after close to 8-10 years absence.

For those that are familiar with the area is it worth swinging a detector in that area? open to suggestions as to where to go in the area? after 6 hours of finding close to 100 rusty iron flakes it seemed to feel like a pointless exercise?

 

[Tathradj]

That area Nerrigundah is very worthy of future exploration.
I mean the whole area within the Valley.
Just be a bit careful of private property.
Six Maps is a help in this area.

 

[iamagoldenoldie2]

the horticulturists will be back, to prepare the soil and perhaps fencing for a spring time plan on the basis of an easter harvest, coming across a plot is a givers uo your back experience, i found one and thought it was a grave until i saw the feathers. a word of warning if you come across a garden, don't poke around you never know who is watching, they might leave traps or a camera , used to find them all the time in the scrub near where i live any thing from a pot set up to a garden bed , the helicopters will be over the area in jan/feb they have sophisticated radar readers that pick up the info red signature give out by the plant , from up there you cant hide anything now there a drones lol

 

[Dron]

Nerrigundagh is a hard place to get your coil on the ground because the vegetation is so dense, also the ticks and leeches are plentiful.

I think around the main creek would be too frustrating to detect because of all the old bits of dredge everywhere.

However if you can get access to some higher ground near the old quartz reefs (that weren't duffers) or some of the gullies where larger nuggets were won I think you might be able to turn up something - which of course means obtaining appropriate permissions as it is all private property.

The whole Gulf area was bush ranger country so who knows what interesting artifacts you might find stashed away in the bush with a detector.

 

[bundyjd]

A Mate has recently got back into prospecting and decided to drag me out as well in the Nerrigundah area.
Up early Saturday morning for the 2 hour drive up the coast we went. I was set on a days crevicing and my mate had a loan of a SDC2300 and hit up the North creek area after a bit of a tip off from some people in the know. We parked the car on a small pad on the side of the road close to the river, we decided after seeing the terrain that we both were in no fit state to be trying to attempt anything to strenuous. kitted up and ready for anything we split up and took a direction each of the river, I went town stream. My trip south ended quiet abruptly as about half a km or so searching for a bedrock show I stumbled across a not so hidden garden bed! Unfortunately I had not hit the mother lode I was after, 3 x 6ft skeletons were all that remained and that a lot of very fresh looking foot prints in the earth below. I was out of there!
After meeting back up at the car we focussed on the upstream areas, plenty of interesting relics show faint tells of past working all along the banks of the river. After some walk I was able to find some attractive spots to focus on with the pan and was able to find a speck around a mm round in the very first pan. After sharing the new with my buddy we both focussed on the pans and after an hour or 2 we had 10 in the snuffer. I found it interesting we did not find any super fine gold all was I the 1mm plus size, best being a small ribbon of around 3mm deep within a crevice. Initially I suspected it my have been operator error with the pan but after slowing things down on half a dozen pans nothing seemed to change.
In all we spent 6 hours on the pan and detector with the pan getting all our finds for the day. It was great to get back out there after close to 8-10 years absence.

For those that are familiar with the area is it worth swinging a detector in that area? open to suggestions as to where to go in the area? after 6 hours of finding close to 100 rusty iron flakes it seemed to feel like a pointless exercise?

Were you in North Ck or Gulph Ck?

 

[Moneybox]

I Had to read this a couple of times. 3x6' skeletons? I think I figured out that they were stripped shrubs?

 

[Jaros]

Yes, I'm still thinking about it. No mention of police reports-who knows?

 

[Tathradj]

Put it this way,
It is a bloody rough area.
It will test both the skill's and mettle of any one.
Out of all the Gold Mining area's that we have down here,
Nerrigundah is the hardest and roughest of the lot. 8)

 

[BourndaBoy]

Buddy, we where in North Ck, never got enough time to look in Gulph Ck....next time.

Jarod & Moneybox, skeletonsas in stripped dope plants... I would have been out of there quick smart if we saw human skeletons.

Tathra, I will definitely be spending some more time up here when the days get a little warmer and longer. Going to hit up Pambula Saturday (today) for a bit of an explore, a lot less driving for the same joy. Came across an old Bega district column you were interviewed for regarding south coast prospecting while I was googling Pambula gold fields, 2016 I think it was. Thanks for the tips with six maps..